“On Shepherd’s Island! In the old hut? Miss Earle, what a gorgeous thrill!”
“That isn’t half the thrill there is,” I said, laughing in spite of myself. “Mr. Smith wants to go to Southport—it is very important that he should go there to-night. Your mother and I were going to take him there, in the small launch.”
“You and Mother! Nobody else knowing anything at all?”
“Not a soul.”
“Do you mean you two were going out late to take him? All the way to Southport? Why, it’s twenty miles!”
“Yes—to everything,” I said. “But your mother has gone and got ill, and she can’t come. That is worrying her dreadfully, because she knows Mr. Smith must be at Southport this very night. I wanted to go alone, but she would not let me. And all through dinner I have been wondering if my Fellow-Members of the Band would help me.”
“Any mortal thing!” declared Judy. “What can we do?”
“You can run a launch as well as I can—or better.”
“You mean——!” Light dawned on their eager faces. “You mean, you’d take us to Southport?”
“I mean that you two should come to help me take Mr. Smith to Southport. It has become a job for the Band.”