Such excitement as this had never before been known among the circles in which Grace Winthrop and her friends moved.
"Mother will be furious at me for ever having had Mr. Barton in the house," said Mary to her friends.
"It wasn't your fault," they told her. "How could you know he was such a rascal?"
"I couldn't! Oh, isn't it perfectly terrible!"
"Terrible!" echoed the girls.
"Rather jolly fun, I call it!" chuckled the young man in the violently colored sweater. "It makes a bit of excitement."
If the truth be known, the girls may have felt the same way about it, only they were not honest enough to acknowledge it.
While Ned left with the special officer to see that Floyd Barton was locked up, pending formal charges that would be filed against him, Tom and Mary went to the House on Wheels to be by themselves.
"Tell your mother I'll be along soon, Grace," was Mary's message to her relative.
"Take your time!" and Grace's voice had a mischievous ring in it.