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"You might begin at once and leave a milestone at Vinton's, for being a willing, little reveler," suggested Emma with meaning. "Come on, girls," rallied Kathleen. "We must show Emma just how willing we are. Allow me, my dear Miss Dean," she offered her arm to Emma, and they paraded down the hall, out the door and down the steps with great ceremony. Mary, Grace, Patience and Evelyn followed.
She decided that once her large brown eyes had lost their scared, anxious expression and her thin face had grown plump, Mary would be really pretty. During luncheon at Vinton's Grace quietly studied her charge. There was something about Mary that reminded one of Ruth Denton, she decided. She and Emma made every effort to put the prospective freshman at her ease.
You will be forgiven as I have been. In the better home of heaven we'll find the secret of our true relationship which we missed here. Good-by now. I must hasten, for I am very weak." Mrs. Arnold rose, put her arms around her son and kissed him, and her daughter supported her from the room, Vinton's eyes following her sorrowfully until she disappeared.
Putting the men of Vinton's and Birge's squadrons who were available at work, Lovell's squadron of four troops which was intact and well in hand under as good an officer as there was in the brigade, was posted in line mounted, parallel with the road, and behind a screen of timber, in readiness to repel any further attack.
Kathleen took instant advantage of the situation. "Suppose we order another pot of tea," she said hospitably. It was fully half an hour later when the three girls left Vinton's. "Oh, my neglected references," sighed Grace. "I must not lose another minute of the afternoon. Which way are you girls going?" "I think I'll go as far as the library with you, Grace," decided Arline.
"I shall say that as I am going to stay over and didn't fancy eating my Christmas dinner alone I thought perhaps the girls who had no particular plans for the day would like to join me at either Martell's or Vinton's. Then I'll explain about the price of the dinner, etc., all in a perfectly offhand manner, and let them do the rest.
A merry twinkle shone in Vinton's eyes for a moment and then he answered: "I think I can, sir; and I am willing to make the attempt." "Very well," replied William, laughing. "Only look out for yourself. I hear she is a very charming young girl, and you may find yourself in earnest before you are aware of it." "Perhaps I may," said Vinton, "and perhaps I might not do better than that if I tried."
"Now, we had better start, or we'll never get back to Vinton's. Ruth, you have my permission to walk with Anne as far as your corner. It's five o'clock now. Shall we agree to meet at Vinton's at half-past six? That will give us an hour and a half to get the soot off our faces, and if the expressman should experience a change of heart and deliver our trunks we might possibly appear in fresh gowns.
"You mean the girl we met that day at Vinton's, don't you?" inquired Patience. "She had been robbed of her money in the train." "Yes; she is the very girl." "How do you reconcile her lack of means to pay her college expenses with this wonderful wardrobe that Kathleen has just told us of?" "I don't reconcile them. I can't. That is just the trouble." Grace looked worried.
Then a light of understanding broke upon Vinton's mind. So that was what the smuggler had been doing all night! Not grappling for the cable, but stealthily picking up a contraband cargo of munitions of war, small stores such as could be cast adrift along the coast in some prearranged method and gathered in by those who had been instructed to recognize the floating objects! What were they?
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