The boat reached shore and the two girls stepped out on the muddy bank.
“Will you need me again?” inquired the boy.
“I may,” said Penny, “and I can’t tell you exactly when. Where do you keep your boat?”
“Up the river just beyond that crooked maple tree. I hide it in the bushes and I keep the oars inside a hollow log close by. You won’t have any trouble finding it.”
Penny and Louise said goodbye to the lad and scrambled up the bank.
“I’m sure I’ll not be going back to that place,” the latter declared emphatically. “I just wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t broken away.”
“We might have been locked up in the stone tower,” Penny laughed. “Then another one of my theories would have proven itself.”
“Oh, you and your theories! You can’t make me believe that gardener didn’t mean to harm us. He was a very sinister character.”
“Sinister is a strong word, Lou. But I’ll agree he’s not any ordinary gardener. Either he’s been hired by the Kippenberg family for a very special purpose or else he’s gained their confidence and means to bend them to his own ends.”
“His own ends! Why, Penny, what do you mean? Have you learned something you haven’t told me?”