"It"s all right now," she said. "Susan will bring her around. But, oh, Billee, how DID you DARE to do such a thing?"
"I"d dare anything to get you what you want. And you said you wanted that particular cook. So I got her."
"But you"ll be arrested for kidnapping!"
"Oh, I think not. I"ll telephone over to that second-rate gardener, and I fancy I can make it all right."
Then Bill and Patty sauntered round the house to the veranda.
"Where"s your cook?" cried Mona.
"In the kitchen, where she belongs," replied Patty. "Do you want her here?"
"No, but how did you get one?"
"Kidnapped her!" declared Patty, and then amid the laughter of their hearers, they told the whole story.
"I never heard of such a thing!" said Aunt Adelaide, with a disapproving frown.
"But it was that, or no dinner," said Patty, plaintively.
"I think it"s great!" said Roger. "And the end is not yet! In an hour, all sorts of police and detectives and weird things like that will come up here and arrest us."
"They"ll only take Patty and me," said Farnsworth, "and we can look out for ourselves, can"t we, A. B.?"
But Patty only smiled, and ran away to her own room.
CHAPTER XX
GOOD-BYE FOR NOW
It was the day of Farnsworth"s departure. In fact, the whole house party was leaving. Roger had already gone, and the Kenerleys and Daisy Dow were to go next day, while Cromer, who had become attached to Spring Beach, had concluded to transfer himself to a hotel and stay the rest of the summer.
"I hate to have you all go," said Mona, dolefully. "Now that I"ve new servants, and such good ones, I"d like to have you all stay on indefinitely."
"There are others," suggested Jim Kenerley.
"I know, but I don"t want others. This crowd has become so chummy and nice it"s a pity to break it up. Aren"t you sorry to go, Bill?"
"Haven"t gone yet!" said Farnsworth, cheerfully.
"But your things are all packed, and you"re to go this afternoon," said Mona.
"Well, it"s morning now; why borrow trouble? Let"s have some fun instead."
"Yes, let"s!" and Mona brightened up. "Let"s go on a picnic!"
"I hate picnics," said Daisy; "they"re no fun. Let"s motor over to Lakeville."
"I hate Lakeville," said Patty. "Let"s have a dress-up party of some kind."
"We can"t get up a fancy dress party in a few hours," objected Adele Kenerley. "Let"s have a contest of some sort,--with prizes. Tennis,--or basket ball."
"Oh, it"s too warm for those things," said Laurence Cromer. "Let"s do something quieter. I"ll tell you what,--let"s play Human Parcheesi!
Just the thing."
"What IS Human Parcheesi?" asked Patty, interested at once.
"Oh, it"s a new game," explained Cromer; "in fact, I just made it up this instant."
"How do you play it?" asked Mona.
"I don"t quite know myself yet. I haven"t finished making it up.
Anyway, you have to have more people. Let me see, we have seven here.
Can you get some more, Mona? We won"t play till after luncheon. It will take the rest of the morning for me to finish making up the game. We"ll play on the west lawn. Oh, it"s going to be lovely! I want four billion yards of red ribbon and cosy decorations and a lot of things! Skip to the telephone, Mona, and invite enough people to make twenty of us all together. Tell "em to come at three o"clock, I"ll be ready then."
"Bill has to go away about six," said Mona, doubtfully.
"Well, make "em come at two, then. The game won"t take long, once we get started. Now, I"ll select four players. Mona will be one, and Daisy Dow, Jim Kenerley and I will be the others."
Mona was already at the telephone, and the other selected players drew around Cromer to learn what they were to do.
"It"s going to be the greatest fun ever," he declared. "If we can"t get red ribbon, we"ll take twine. Guess it"ll be better, anyhow. Mona, will you send a slave to the general store to buy a lot of b.a.l.l.s of twine?"
"I"ll attend to it," said Patty, "Mona"s telephoning."
When Patty returned from this errand, the others were all out on the west lawn. Farnsworth and Jim Kenerley were measuring off s.p.a.ces, and a gardener was driving in pegs.
When the twine arrived, it was stretched on these pegs, until the whole lawn was diagrammed like a parcheesi board. There were the four squares in the corners, representing "Homes," there was a large square in the centre, and the paths were marked into regular rectangles with a "Safety Spot" in every fifth s.p.a.ce.
So carefully was the measuring done that at a short distance it looked exactly like a parcheesi board, except the colouring.
"Now," said Cromer, when the ground was ready, "each of you four "Players" must fix up your corner "Homes" with a different colour."
So Daisy chose pink, and Mona blue, and Mr. Kenerley yellow, and Laurence Cromer green.
Rugs of appropriate colours were brought from the house for these "Homes," and a few wicker chairs or campstools were placed in them.
Then the spirit of emulation was roused, and the "Players" sought for little tables, vases of flowers, or potted palms to decorate their "Homes."
Mrs. Kenerley helped her husband, and Patty a.s.sisted Cromer, with their feminine tastes and ideas, and Patty prevailed on the head gardener to cut his choicest flowers to decorate the game.
"You see," Laurence said, "we COULD get this thing up beautifully, with canopies and flags of the four colours, and turkey red strips down these paths and all that. But this will do for a makeshift game."
The central square was prettily arranged with a set of furniture brought from a veranda, a tea table, a stand of flowers, and a flagpole and flag.