“Goodness, I guess he must be a crazy criminal,” thought Billie plaintively, as she and her chums followed their leader, stumbling on over rocks and roots that sometimes bruised their ankles painfully. “I suppose there are some people that are both. Anyway, he must be a criminal, or he wouldn’t have been so mad about my knowing his name.”
The rest of that strange journey seemed interminable. There were times when the girls were sure the man who called himself Hugo Billings was not taking them toward Three Towers Hall at all. It seemed impossible that they could have wandered such a long way into the woods.
Then suddenly their feet struck a hard-beaten path and they almost cried aloud with relief. For they recognized the path and knew that the open road was not far off. Once on the open road, they could find their way alone.
Abruptly the man in front stopped and turned to face them. Once more the girls’ hearts misgave them. Was he going to make trouble after all? Why didn’t he go on?
And then the man spoke.
“I won’t go any farther with you,” he said, and there was something in his manner of speaking that made them see again in imagination the tired slump of his shoulders, the wild, haunted look in his eyes. “I don’t like the road. But you can find it easily from here. Then turn to your right. Three Towers is hardly half a mile up the road. Good night.”
He turned with abruptness and started back the way they had come. But impulsively Billie ran to him, calling to him to stop. Yet when he did stop and turned to look at her she had not the slightest idea in the world what she had intended to say—if indeed she had really intended to say anything.
“I—I just wanted to thank you,” she stammered, adding, with a swift little feeling of pity for this man who seemed so lonely: “And if there’s anything I can ever do to—to—help you——”
“Who told you I needed help?” cried the man, his voice so harsh and threatening that Billie started back, half falling over a root.
“Why—why,” faltered Billie, saying almost the first thing that came into her mind. “You looked so—so—sad——”