“Who else? Certainly no one would have reason to try to attract our attention.”
“But why should anyone come here tonight?”
As the girls speculated upon the meaning of the mysterious signals, they heard a door at the end of the hall softly open. Footsteps padded noiselessly past their door.
“Are you asleep, girls?” Mrs. Lear’s voice chirped.
Louise would have answered had not Penny clapped a hand firmly over her mouth.
After a moment the footsteps pattered on down the stairway.
“Where can Mrs. Lear be going?” Penny speculated in a whisper. “She wanted to make certain that we were asleep.”
The girls did not have long to wait. Soon they heard an outside door close. A moment later they saw the spry old lady crossing the yard to the barn. She was fully dressed and wore a grotesque tight-waisted jacket as protection against the biting night wind.
Penny turned her gaze toward the woods once more. The lantern signals had ceased.
“What do you think is going on?” Louise asked in bewilderment.