“You had better get into the car and let us take you home,” said Miss Campbell who had recovered from her fright.
For the second time since they left Chicago, they now found themselves giving a lift to a strange young man. In another five minutes the Comet drew up at the front door of a big frame farmhouse painted white, with green shutters. Everything about it was exceedingly neat, although there was a certain emptiness in the prospect, perhaps because there were no flower beds in the yard and also no curtains at any of the windows which stared down at them like so many eyeless sockets. However, they were rather surprised when the front door was opened by a Japanese butler in a white linen suit. A second Japanese servant followed and they assisted their master out of the motor car.
“Ladies,” said Mr. Moore, his face twitching with the pain of his sprained leg, “may I ask you into my home. It will be a great pleasure and honor, I am sure. My name is Daniel Moore. I am a lonely bachelor farmer, and I shall take it as a particular compliment if you will join me at lunch.”
“But I am afraid you are in great pain, Mr. Moore,” protested Miss Campbell.
“Not in the least, I assure you, madam. My leg is only a little twisted. I shall be walking on it in an hour. You just now confessed that you were hungry. So am I. Takamini, luncheon for six.”
Miss Campbell, at the mention of lunch, stepped nimbly down from the car and followed him into the house with the girls.
Would it not have been exceedingly foolish to have declined an invitation for a good square meal? And they hoped it would be good and square.
CHAPTER IV.—THE THREE WISHES.
“It’s a queer thing,” declared Nancy, when Takamini had shown them into two neat bare-looking bedrooms upstairs, “it’s really a very strange thing indeed.”
“What?” demanded her friends.