“You see,” she explained as Johnny gave her a questioning look, “we set Hassie, that’s our servant, to hunt up your friend, Panther Eye. He did a good piece of work—almost. In the end though, he allowed him to slip away.”
“He would have had a hard time stopping him,” Johnny chuckled. “Even if he’d known everything, he would have vanished.
“You see,” he leaned forward, “Panther Eye just wanted to take you back so you would be in that picture again, the broad, green pasture, the cows, the banana field, and all that. When you were back he was satisfied. He isn’t romantic, not in the least. And as for money, he never appears to need it much. So—”
“So it’s not much use looking.” The girlish figure drooped. “I—I did so want to thank him!”
“You might leave your address.” Johnny suggested.
“Yes. Yes. So I might. Will you loan me pencil and paper?”
As Johnny stood close to the girl while she wrote down the address, he became conscious of two things—that she was no ghost but a real person, and that she was really quite charming.
“And you,” she favored him with a rare smile, “you will come and see us?”
“Well—yes, perhaps.”
She held out her hand. Johnny took it in his own. It was a good firm hand. Johnny liked the touch of it.