“Well, but what did you mean?” asked Ferd, adding his voice to Teddy’s while the other boys seemed interested.
The girls looked at one another and then at Billie.
“Shall we tell them?” asked Vi.
“I don’t see why we shouldn’t,” Billie answered, her eyes on the fire. “Of course we don’t know that there’s any mystery about it. It only looks queer, that’s all.”
Then with the help of the girls she told the boys all about the man who lived in a hut in the woods and called himself Hugo Billings, and also about Miss Arbuckle and the album she had been so overjoyed to recover. The boys listened with an interest that fast changed to excitement.
“Well, I should say there was something queer about it!” Ferd Stowing broke out at last. “Especially about the man who lives in the woods and makes fern baskets. He’s either crazy or he’s a thief or something.”
“Gee, I wish you had told us about it while we were there!” said Chet regretfully. “We might have been able to find out something—landed him in jail maybe.”
“Then I’m glad we didn’t tell you,” said Billie promptly.
“Why?” asked Chet, amazed.
“Because I felt awfully sorry for him,” his sister answered softly. “And I’d rather help him than hurt him. I’d like to see him smile again.”