Part 26 (1/2)
”I suppose she would, as I'm a stranger to her. But I hate to be a bother.”
”No bother at all,” said Terry. ”One of us can go with you, and the rest of us can stay here to receive our expected visitor. He may not come after all,” she added.
”Oh, I think he will,” said Arden.
”Then you two stay here,” suggested Terry quickly. ”I will go in our boat with this lady. We'll do some crabbing. It will be the best way.”
”And if our friend comes,” said Sim, ”we'll hold him until you get back, Terry.”
”Yes, do that.”
CHAPTER XXIV The Man Arrives
Emma Tash was a very efficient woman. No sooner had the crabbing plan of approaching the Clayton shack been decided upon than she lifted up a small black bag which she had set beside her chair.
”If we are going crabbing,” she said with a smile, ”I have my disguise in here.”
”Disguise!” repeated the girls in a chorus.
Truly things were developing fast at Marshlands.
A detective woman!
A disguise!
Arden's eyes sparkled.
”It isn't much of a disguise,” went on Emma Tash. ”We women investigators don't go in much for that sort of thing. Some of our men do, though. But when I knew I had to come down to the seash.o.r.e, naturally I thought of bathing, fis.h.i.+ng, or crabbing.
”Now, I'm not very fond of ocean bathing, so I pa.s.sed up that suit. I don't know how to fish, but I do know how to crab, and I used to do it when I was a girl. So I brought my crabbing disguise with me.”
”What in the world is a crabbing disguise?” asked Terry, as their visitor laughed. ”George Clayton doesn't wear one.”
”It's just an old dress I don't care what happens to,” said Emma Tash, ”and an old-fas.h.i.+oned sunbonnet. With that on, I defy anyone who sees me in it to recognize me afterward if I dress as I am now.”
”Oh, that sort of a disguise,” laughed Terry. ”Well, I guess that will be all right. And we had better start,” she added. ”Time is pa.s.sing, and I want to be back here to help receive our visitor.”
”I will be as quick as I can,” Emma Tash said. ”If I could go somewhere to change my dress--”
”I'll show you,” offered Mrs. Landry. ”Come with me, please.”
While the visitor was upstairs, the girls, in breathless whispers, discussed her and her errand. They agreed that the plan they had adopted was the best one possible in the circ.u.mstances.
”Only,” sighed Terry who, in a sense, was offering herself as a sacrifice, ”I do hope Serge Uzlov doesn't arrive until I get back.”
”We'll keep him for you,” promised Arden.
Emma Tash certainly was a very different person in her crabbing disguise.