"What do you think has happened now?" she cried, taking Amy's other arm and helping her along.
"Oh, Mollie," cried Amy, standing stock still to gaze at her, "what—"
"The twins haven't been found?" Betty questioned eagerly, but Mollie shook her head.
"No such luck," she returned. "But we have found out one thing. Those blessed little twins are alive, anyway."
"How do you know?" they queried breathlessly.
By this time they had reached the top of the bluff and were all, Mrs. Ford included, hurrying toward the house.
"They received a letter," Mollie explained, sinking down on a step of the porch while the others crowded about her eagerly, "from some old rascal—oh, if I could only get my hands on him!" she paused to glare about her ferociously, but they impatiently hurried her on.
"Yes! But the letter!" Betty urged.
"It was from a man who demanded twenty thousand dollars—" she paused again, while the girls gasped and crowded closer, "for the return of the twins."
"Then they were kidnapped!" cried Grace.