“Maybe we ought to take Spotted Snake, the Witch, with us,” chuckled her chum. “What do you say?”
“I think not, honey. We might only raise hopes in the child’s mind that will not be fulfilled. I think she loves her cousin Bertha very much; and of course we do not know that this is that girl whose cry for help we heard.”
“We don’t really know anything about it. Maybe it is all a joke or a mistake.” 150
“Do you think that girl sounded as though she were joking?” was Jessie’s scornful reply. “Anyway, we will look into it alone first. If Chapman can find the stock farm with the red barn––”
“And there are two fallen trees and a silo near it,” put in Amy, smiling. “Goodness me, Jess! I am afraid the boys would say we had another crazy notion.”
“I like that!” cried Jessie Norwood. “What is there crazy about trying to help somebody who certainly must be in trouble? Besides,” she added very sensibly, “Daddy Norwood will be very thankful to us if we should manage to find that Bertha Blair. He needs her to witness for his clients, and Momsy says the hearing before the Surrogate cannot be postponed again. The matter must soon be decided, and without Bertha Blair’s testimony Daddy’s clients may lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
“We’ll be off to the rescue of the prisoner in the morning, then,” said Amy, cuddling down into one of her chum’s twin beds. “Good-night! Sweet dreams! And if you have a nightmare don’t expect me to get up and tie it to the bed-post.”
The next morning Chapman brought around the car as early as half past eight, when the girls were just finishing breakfast.
“Don’t eat any more, Amy,” begged Jessie. “Do 151 get up for once from the table feeling that you could eat more. The doctors say that is the proper way.”
“Pooh! What do the doctors know about eating?” scoffed Amy. “Their job is to tend to you when you can’t eat. Why? honey! I feel lots better morally with a full stomach than when I am hungry.”