Our Next-Door Neighbors Part 14

"Stop!" I thundered.

The flying wheel of arms and legs slacked, ran a few times, then slowly stopped, and the Polydore quintette a.s.sumed normal positions.

"Halloa, stepdaddy!"

A landslide composed of Emerald, Pythagoras, and Demetrius started toward me. I side-stepped and let Rob receive the charge.

"Line them up now, for attention," I directed Ptolemy. "I have something to say to you all."

Ptolemy knocked the three terrors up against the wall, and I picked up Diogenes, who had a b.u.mp as big as an egg on his head.

"I told you," said Ptolemy to Pythagoras, "that if you brought Di down here they'd get on our trail. He wanted to see Di," he explained, "so he sneaked over there and got him."

"We were wise before today," I informed him. "I saw you all day before yesterday."

"And I discovered you yesterday," added Rob.

Ptolemy looked rather crestfallen, and then, seeming to consider that my discovery had been succeeded by inaction, which must mean non-interference, he heartened up.

"Now," I demanded, "I want you to begin at the time you left the hotel and tell me everything and why you did it."

"I wasn't having any fun after you two went off camping," he began lugubriously. "I couldn't hang around women folks all the time. I wanted boys to play with."

I saw a gleam of sympathy and understanding come into Rob's eyes.

"A harem of hens," he muttered.

"I knew we could all have a grand time here and not be a bother to mudder, or Huldah or anyone, and it seemed too bad for this nice house to be empty, and no one anywhere else wanting us."

I felt my first gleam of pity for a Polydore and wiped Diogenes'

dirty, moist face carefully with my handkerchief.

"So I went home and told Huldah I had come after the boys to take them back with me."

"And told her we had sent for them?" I asked sharply.

He flushed slightly at my tone.

"No; I didn't tell her so. She got that idea herself, and I didn't tell her different."

"When did you come?"

"I came the same night that you telephoned, and took the train you and mudder came on. We got to Windy Creek in the morning. We fetched all our stuff here from home. I bought it."

"Right here," I said, "tell me where you got the money to buy your stuff and to pay your fare here."

"I cashed father's check."

"I didn't know he left you one."

"He didn't, except the one he gave me to give you for our board. You told mudder you wouldn't touch it, and it seemed a pity not to have it working."

Visions of a future Polydore doing the chain and ball step flashed before my vision.

"And they cashed it for you at the bank?"

"Sure. Father always has me cash his checks for him."

"What amount did you fill in?" I asked enviously.

"One hundred dollars. There's a lot more in the bank, too."

"How did you get your truck here from Windy Creek?" asked Rob.

"We divided it up and each took a bunch and started on foot, and some people in an automobile, going to the town past here, took us in and brought us as far as the lane. We've been having a fine time."

"What doing?" asked Rob interestedly.

"Fishing, sailing on a raft, playing in the woods all day and--"

"Playing ghost at night," said Pythagoras with a grin.

"Who made that ghost in the window?" I demanded.

"I did. I rigged up an arm and put it out the window the afternoon I left, hoping Beth would come down and see it, but we've got a jim dandy one now."

"That was quite a shapely arm," said Rob. "Where did you learn sculpturing?"

"Oh, I rigged it up," he said casually.

"What did you bring in the way of supplies?"

"Bacon, crackers, beans, candy, popcorn, gum, peanuts, pickles, candles, matches, and b.u.t.ter," was the glib inventory.

"You may stay here," I said, "until we go home, but you are not to stir away from the woods about here and not on any account to come near the hotel, or let it be known that you are here. And you are to end this ghost business right off. Now, Di, we'll go home to mudder."

"No!" bawled Di. "Stay with boys. Mudder come here."

At least this was Ptolemy's interpretation of his protest.

I threatened, Rob coaxed, and Ptolemy cuffed, but every time I started to leave and jerk him after me, he uttered such demoniac yells I was forced to stop.

"Wish it was night," said Emerald regretfully. "Wouldn't he scare folks though! How does he get his voice up so high?"

"Poor little Di!" said a voice commiseratingly from the doorway. "Was Ocean plaguing him?"

Beth gathered the child in her arms, and his howls changed to sobs.

Rob stood petrified with amazement at her appearance.