“Only for one reason. To learn what’s going on here. I confess you’ve made me very curious about the storm cave.”
“Fenestra would watch her every minute, the same as he did me. It won’t work.”
“It will if Mrs. Weems can get the job,” declared Penny confidently. “First of all, we must make Fenestra so uncomfortable he’ll want someone to take care of the house. Is he a good cook?”
“Oh, wretched. And the trick of keeping a good fire going is simply beyond him. Why, if we turned the damper, it never would occur to him to change it.”
“Thanks for the idea,” laughed Penny. “Let’s hide the breakfast supplies, too.”
Tillie was quite certain that her friend did not know what she was doing, but she offered no objection to the plan. Before leaving the house they altered the stove damper, hid the coffee pot, and placed salt in the sugar bowl.
“If Old Peter doesn’t get his coffee in the morning he’ll simply rave,” chuckled Tillie. “Missing it may be the one thing which will make him hire a new housekeeper.”
The girls were watchful as they crossed the yard, but they observed no one lurking about the premises. Evidently the man who had hidden behind the lilacs had taken himself elsewhere.
Penny escorted Tillie to the parked automobile, leaving her there while she went to the cottage for Mrs. Weems. The housekeeper was ready and waiting by the time she arrived.
“Penny, I nearly gave you up,” she sighed. “Why did it take so long?”