“I haven’t the least idea it is the five-dollar bill Darry is worrying about,” said Burd, significantly, and thereafter not all Amy’s bribes or threats could bring from him an explanation of the cryptic sentence.
It was some hours later that Burd took Jessie by the arm and drew her aside from the others.
“See here, Jess,” he said. “I don’t like the way Darry is acting, at all.”
“What do you mean?” queried Jessie, all her fears of the morning once more active.
“He hasn’t been like himself——”
“I have noticed that,” broke in the girl, impatiently. “You have something special you want to tell me about Darry, Burd. Please don’t keep me waiting.”
Burd hesitated.
“I am telling you this,” he said, at last, “because you are level-headed and not apt to go off the handle like Amy. Jessie, I have reason to believe that Darry saw that girl when we were in Gibbonsville.”
“What makes you think that?” asked Jessie, faintly. Suddenly the world seemed all upside down.
“He managed to dodge away from Fol and me when we weren’t looking,” Burd answered, stirring up some loose stones with his foot and looking extremely uncomfortable. “And later on when we were looking for him we came suddenly around a corner and saw him talking with some one. His companion dodged out of sight when she saw us, but Fol and I saw that it was a girl, and, from the description you gave of her, it seemed pretty sure that she was the same one you and Amy are after.”