CHAPTER VI
THE START
“Darry, what do you mean?” Jessie cried breathlessly. “Do you know this girl?” Darry regarded her strangely for a moment, then replied with a forced gayety that did not deceive Jessie for a moment:
“How can I tell? You must admit your description has been meager. There are millions of girls in the United States with blue eyes and black eyelashes, I suppose.”
“There are more in Ireland,” murmured Amy.
From that time on, try as Jessie might to break his silence, Darry remained absolutely dumb on the subject of the girl who had given Amy the counterfeit bill. Jessie knew instinctively that this very silence meant that he knew—or suspected—a great deal more than he wished to tell about this girl, and in exact proportion as his silence lengthened, her curiosity increased. She was piqued, too, to think that Darry could be so secretive. He had always seemed so frank and open in all his actions. He must, she decided unwillingly, think a great deal of this girl to be so careful to shield her from curiosity—even the kindest and best intentioned curiosity like hers.
The day after their meeting, Miss Alling kept her promise to the girls and appeared at the Norwood home promptly at eight o’clock to “listen in” on the wonders of Jessie’s radio set.
She came, she frankly admitted, in a skeptical mood, for she could not bring herself to believe that two such young girls could erect with any degree of success so complicated an apparatus as a radio receiving set. Miss Alling belonged to the type of person who, while believing she can do nearly everything herself, has a good-natured contempt for the accomplishments of most of her sex.
However, the girls proved to her that such a feat was indeed possible, and, after looking the radio set over, Miss Alling pronounced herself converted.
During the course of the evening Nell Stanley appeared, bringing with her Folsom Duckworth, a high school boy all the others knew well.
“I fixed it up at home so that I can go to Forest Lodge with you,” said Nell.