“Anything happen after we left?” pursued Cara just to keep the wire busy.
“No, that is not anything much.” The secret of Miss Davis’ ship model could not be told over the phone, Babs had promptly decided. And because of its importance and Miss Davis’ indecision concerning the real displaying of the model, Babs felt the least said about it to any one, the better. And that meant that she wouldn’t say anything about it to any one.
So the girls talked a few minutes longer, and then reluctantly hung up their respective receivers.
Cara always cheered Babs up. She had a way of dispelling the little fears that would unconsciously steal in upon the other girl, and the very sound of her laughing voice, the very indifferent, easy way in which she so naturally pointed out that Nicky Marcusi shouldn’t be seen around the Community House, unless he was with some one who might later come in to see the exhibit, sort of broke up Babs’ unaccountable fit of anxiety.
“I won’t have any little boys running around there while I’m in charge,” she decided as she again reached her own room and prepared for bed. “There’s no telling what youngsters might do and just think it smart.”
But Nicky so seldom had any boys with him, or he was so seldom with other boys that this newest argument didn’t seem quite sincere.
“And besides that,” Babs was thinking not exactly out loud but loud enough for her own secret use, “I’m not going to take any more responsibility there. It’s the women’s affair and they must manage it. I feel as if I had done enough already with their old moth-eaten delaine quilts,” and she took her bag of marbles from the center of her bed where she had dropped them when the telephone rang, and after tossing them up a few times to catch them like a bean bag, she finally settled down to read the despised magazine.
CHAPTER XVII
THE LOSS
Barbara couldn’t believe it; Miss Davis’ model was gone! Stolen from the Dutch oven and no one had seen them hide it there. That is, no one but Nicky.
It was not yet nine o’clock next morning when Miss Davis came around and told Barbara. She had decided not to oppose her sister and went out to the Community House to get the family heirloom: and it was gone!