“Well, this is what I call luck!” exclaimed Ferd Stowing.
“Yes,” added Teddy, putting his hand in his pocket, “just hear the money jingle. A nice big check from Dad in just appreciation of his absent son! What do you girls say to an ice-cream spree? No less than three apiece, with all this unwonted wealth.”
“Ice cream? I should say!” was Billie’s somewhat slangy acceptance.
“Teddy,” suddenly asked Laura, “how does it come that you have any money left from Dad’s check?”
“Check came just as we left the Academy, Captain Shelling cashed it for me, and we have just reached town.”
“Oh! Well, maybe I’ll find one, too, when we reach Three Towers.”
“So that’s it, is it, sister mine? Envy!”
After that they ate ice cream to repletion, and at last the girls decided that there was nothing much left to do but to go back to the school.
It was just as well that they had made this decision, for the sun was beginning to sink in the west and the supper hour at Three Towers Hall was rather early. As they started toward home, having said good-bye to the boys, the girls quickened their pace.
It was not till they were nearing the path which, to Billie at least, had been surrounded by a mysterious halo since the adventure of the other night that the girls slowed up. Then it was Billie who did the slowing up.