"What's that, Daddy? Read it to us," begged Eleanor, eagerly.
"Why--wh-y-y--the young rascal hit it right on the head, all right! But where did he get it?" continued Mr. Maynard.
"For pity's sake--read it aloud!" commanded Eleanor, hardly able to hold her tongue about the story.
Then Mr. Maynard read it, and it lost none of its vivid coloring by his reading, either. When he had almost concluded, Polly began to grow angry. When he finished, she was furious.
"I'm going up to that office and I'll fight that reporter. He had no more right to print that than those other men had to use someone else's photographs and call them ours. So there!"
Mr. Maynard had been thinking seriously, and now he nailed Eleanor with a penetrating look. "Nolla, did you tell that young rascal this story when you ran to the door with his pencil and paper last night?"
"No, indeed! I did not, Daddy! You can ask the butler if I ever did! He stood right there when I handed Dunlap the pencil!"
Eleanor's denial was so emphatic that everyone believed she was innocent of any such plot; so they never found out who was the guilty one.
While at breakfast, the telephone rang. "This is Mr. Latimer, Anne. We have just read the papers and were so surprised! When we saw the pictures of the two heroines, we feared some dreadful thing had happened to distort their faces so that we failed to recognise them, and I hastened to inquire. Do you need Dr. Evans' services to straighten out those faces?"
An amused laugh could be heard over the wire, and Anne laughed back. "No, thanks; a good night's rest has brought back their natural looks. The faces in the paper must have been taken by the flickering flame of the burning dwelling."
"Jim and Ken came home late last night for the Holiday. We wanted to congratulate you girls on trying so hard for the Carnegie Medal, but now Jim wants to say 'good-morning.'"
In another moment, Jim's voice was heard speaking. "Oh, good-morning, Anne. Have you used Pears Soap?" Then a gay laugh.
"We have, but you haven't! Your father just told me you got in at midnight, and if you're up as early as this, I'm sure the sleep hasn't been washed from your eyes," retorted Anne.
Polly and Eleanor crowded close and hung over the 'phone so they could hear what Jim had to say.