Captain Quiller looked at the girls whose faces were set with an impatient, anxious expression.
“Then, it seems to me,” he said like a judge, “you girls will have to wait until Friday.”
“Oh, how can we?” wailed Barbara. “Think of Miss Davis.”
“When Bell Davis hears her Santa Maria is safe,” said the seaman decidedly, “she’ll be so glad she won’t worry about anything else. I know Bell Davis and her ship model too,” he finished, and so the girls were obliged to be content with that. But they were not content at all.
CHAPTER XXIV
SCOUTS IN THE WOOD
“You were wise, dear, not to press the boy further. I think he had about as much as a small boy’s head could carry, as it was.”
So spoke Dr. Hale to Barbara, late that night, after Barbara had told him the whole story of her complicated interest in Nicky and his family. She was sitting on the floor beside him, on the old braided rug, her head against his knee so that he might stroke it reassuringly.
“And you’ve forgiven me for not telling you before, Dads? You see, I knew you wouldn’t want me to bother about such things, and I felt that once I did get into it I would have to go through with it,” she explained. “But, you have no idea what a bother it has been. Whew!” She blew the word out explosively. “I feel like a Sherlock Holmes.”
“Yes, it is surprising what difficulties some poor people have to struggle against and yet what fine characters they develop. If they don’t get sour they are sure to remain permanently strong; sort of a concentrated character, if you know what I mean,” her father pointed out to her.
“Yes, I think I understand, sort of boiled down,” she answered, laughingly.