“Of course! And, thinking that, she didn’t know but what we might try to have her arrested. Later when Darry found her and was so friendly she was encouraged to do what she had probably wanted to do for a long time—make good that counterfeit bill,” said Jessie, earnestly.
“Well go ahead, Darry. There is still considerable mystery to unravel. What became of the woman who gave Eileen the counterfeit bill?”
“Ah, now you come to the real point of this yarn,” said Burd. “You sure did ask a leading question that time, Amy.”
“From Eileen’s description,” Darry continued, “I thought I recognized the woman as one whom I had seen in Gibbonsville talking with some rough-looking men. I did a little sleuthing on my own account and finally trailed the woman and her companions in the direction of Forest Lodge.”
“Forest Lodge!” they cried, and instinctively glanced about at the shadows that pressed in upon them.
“Go on, Darry,” urged Jessie, eagerly. “I believe I begin to see light.”
“You found out about that hut in the swamp!” cried Nell. “Now, I know why you were so anxious to investigate Phrosy’s ghosts!”
“Hold on, hold on!” begged Amy, rubbing a hand across a troubled forehead. “You proceed too swiftly for me, as Miss Seymour would remark. My poor intelligence refuses to follow your drift.”
“You see, it was like this,” said Burd, taking the story away from Darry and speaking swiftly. “Darry did find out that this woman and her companions came from the hut in the swamp, and he got it into his well-oiled brain pan that this unpleasant abode was the home of counterfeiters——”
“An ideal one I must say,” murmured Amy. “Absolutely safe from intrusion.”
“Ideal, as you say,” agreed Burd. “And if it had not been for Darry, the invincible sleuthhound, it might have remained absolutely safe from intrusion to the end of time. He confided to Fol and me his suspicions, and we immediately decided to investigate the inhabitants of the mysterious hut.”
“And you never told us a word about it!” complained Amy. “That is what I call just plain mean.”
“All the time you said you were going to investigate the queer noises from the swamp, you were after the counterfeiters!” exclaimed Jessie, excitedly.
“Not on your life!” Fol chuckled. “When we said we were after ghosts, we were after ghosts.”