"Lovely!" cried Cora, giving the twins a little hug in turn.
"Here, quit that in public. Want to make a fellow jealous?" demanded Jack.
"Oh—you—" began Belle with an arch look at Cora's brother.
"Now we're going to take a preliminary look at things with you, Cora," said Bess. "I'm just dying to get a certain bonnet that I saw in the window."
"Toot-toot! Farewell!" cried Jack, as he puffed in imitation of an auto and turned up the street.
"Do you know," began Cora as soon as her brother was safely out of sight, "speaking of that robbery, I have been thinking lately how strange it was that Ida, Mary and Sid should have been talking so seriously behind my car when I happened to look around and see them. Mary's face flushed, and Ida immediately walked away."
"Is that so?" demanded Bess.
"Yes, and I have been puzzling over it for some time."
"I overheard some of the things they said," declared Belle. "I think Sid was trying to get Mary and Ida to promise to go out for a ride with him that evening. Ida refused, and Mary—well, I didn't hear just what she said—but it wasn't no, I'm sure."
"But they all three looked so—so guilty," went on Cora. "It was exactly as if they didn't want to be discovered."