Salt finished taking the pictures and slipped the miniature camera back into his pocket.
“Now let’s amble down toward the river and wait,” he said to Penny. “We’ll blossom forth just as the ceremony starts. Mrs. Kippy won’t dare interrupt it to have us thrown off the grounds.”
They walked down a sloping path, past a glass-enclosed hothouse and on toward a grove of giant oak and maple trees.
“It’s pleasant here when you’re away from the crowd,” Penny remarked, gazing up at the leafy canopy. “I wonder where this path leads?”
“Oh, down to the river probably. With water on three sides of us that’s a fairly safe guess.”
“Which rivers flow past the estate, Salt?”
“The Big Bear and the Kobalt.”
“The same old muddy Kobalt which is near our town,” said Penny in surprise. “I’ll always think of it as a river of adventure.”
“Because of Mud-Cat Joe and his Vanishing Houseboat?”
Penny nodded and a dreamy look came into her eyes. “So much happened on the Kobalt, Salt. Remember that big party Dad threw at the Comstock Inn?”