Page:Arthur Stringer-The Loom of Destiny.djvu/163

Thicker than Water the mastication of a chocolate cream. Mary Edith understood.

"Georgie, there's just one thing to do. We must go right straight and tell Freckles."

"Yes, we'll have to go right straight and tell Freckles," echoed Georgie, triumphantly.

"Then you go down to the side door and I'll let you in." Mary Edith was a woman of action. "Are you afraid, Georgie?" she asked, as she noticed him hesitate.

"Oh, no," said Georgie, stoutly.

He closed the window and slipped down through the big hall and out through the back door in his white Madras pajamas. At the side door of the other house Mary Edith met him in her nightgown. They took hold of each other's hand, for it was very dark inside and everyone was asleep.

They went noiselessly from room to room in their bare feet, silently climbed the wide stairway, and then went up still another stairway.

They slipped through the door of Freckles' room and carefully closed themselves in. Mary Edith punched the sleeping Freckles 151