Part 22 (2/2)

”Nonsense, Amy,” snapped Mollie. ”What could one little mad old man do to three big husky soldier boys?”

The words had hardly been spoken when the sound of voices could be heard coming toward the house, and a moment later the boys themselves stamped up on the porch.

”Not a sign of him,” said Will in response to the girls' eager questions.

”I don't see how he could have disappeared so completely in such a short time.”

”We all took different directions, too,” said Roy, taking a seat on the couch again and staring fascinatedly at the window. ”If all the rest of you hadn't seen it too, I should certainly think I had been mistaken.”

”You weren't mistaken,” Mollie a.s.sured him grimly. ”I can vouch for that.”

”Didn't one of you girls call out something about Professor Dempsey?”

asked Frank, abruptly.

”Yes,” said Betty, going over to him and putting an excited hand on his shoulder. ”That's the thing that startled us so, Frank. We are sure it was Professor Dempsey's face. But, still, it was so wild and distorted that we really wouldn't feel like contradicting any one who told us it wasn't he,”

she added slowly. ”Do you understand what I mean?”

Frank nodded, and Will broke in excitedly:

”But the poor old codger's looks would naturally be changed,” he argued, ”after he had spent all this time wandering around the woods--out of his mind at that. I am inclined to think that the girls are right and that it is really Professor Dempsey.”

”If only I could have gotten my hands on him!” mourned Roy. ”We wouldn't have been in any further doubt.”

”There is really no doubt, boys. We just want--oh, I don't know what we want!” exclaimed Mollie, who was excited and unstrung and nervous.

Soon after that they all went to bed, having first decided to make a more thorough search of the woods in the morning and take the postponed trip to the head of the falls.

They slept fitfully and were glad when at last they woke to find the sun s.h.i.+ning in their windows. For once Amy and Grace did not have to be coaxed or wheedled or forced to get out of bed, but dressed quickly and were ready almost as soon as Mollie and Betty.

”You know I rather hated to leave the boys in that room last night,” Betty confided to Grace, stopping before the mirror for one final little pat of her hair. ”I was afraid that--he--might come back--”

”Oh, Betty, what a horrid idea,” said Grace. ”Come on, let's see if everything is all right.”

But they found that their fears had been wasted. The boys were in the kitchen hilariously helping Mrs. Irving get the breakfast to the accompaniment of continual good-natured scolding from that flushed and perspiring lady. It was Amy's day to get the breakfast, but, as usual, she was late in getting down.

”You make a good deal more trouble than you mend,” Mrs. Irving was saying as the girls came to the door, then added relievedly as she caught sight of them: ”For goodness' sake, get these young ruffians out of the kitchen, my dears, or we'll not have any breakfast until noon.”

So amid much fun and nonsense the boys were shooed forth into the bright suns.h.i.+ne of the out-of-doors, and all the girls fell to to help their chaperon, not wanting to put the extra work the boys made entirely on Amy's shoulders.

Breakfast was good, but they ate hurriedly, anxious to get at the business of the day. They wanted more than they had wanted anything in a very long time to find Professor Dempsey and tell him the joyful news that his sons were alive.

”I'm horribly afraid of him at night,” Mollie confided, as they started out at last, ”but in the daytime I am only sorry for him.”

”Do you think we shall find him, Will?” asked Amy, with a helpless little look into Will's self-reliant young face. ”I do want to so much.”

Will looked down at her with an expression that said to any one who would read it: ”I would give you anything in the world you asked for, if I only could.”

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