"But she don't want him, and that's the end of it. I've given you warning now. If anything happens to her I'll call in the police, and I'll tell all I know, and that's more than either of you dream of," concluded our hero, and walked off.
"He's an imp!" muttered Bulson savagely. "I'd like to wring his neck for him!"
"I wonder how much he knows?" said Pepper, in alarm. "It was always a mystery to me how he and the girl fell in with each other."
"He can't know very much, for she doesn't know a great deal, Pepper. He's only talking to scare us," said Bulson. His uncle had not told him of the meeting in the library.
"What are you going to do next?"
"Better wait till this affair blows over. Then Gertrude will be off her guard," concluded Homer Bulson.
After that several weeks slipped by without anything unusual happening. Gertrude kept on her guard when going out to give piano lessons, but neither Bulson nor Pepper showed himself.
Gertrude, Gladys, and Nelson all took turns in caring for Mrs. Kennedy, and the old lady speedily recovered from the severe attack of rheumatism she had experienced. She was anxious to get back to her fruit-and-candy stand.
"It's meself as can't afford to be idle at all," she declared. "Sure an' I must owe yez all a whole lot av money."