Page:Betty Gordon in the Land of Oil.djvu/210

200 to look stylish and as though they had just come from town instead of sleeping in a hayloft all night."

"They said they had stayed in Flame City over night," said Miss Hope indignantly, "The idea!"

"They had several," grinned Bob. "I certainly put in an anxious hour up there after they had gone down the ladder. You see, I didn't know Betty was going for Uncle Dick, and I didn't know that any one else would say there was oil on the place. Fluss had a roll of bills as big as your arm, and I pictured him flashing that and Aunt Hope so anxious to send me to school that she wouldn't leave a margin for herself and Aunt Charity to live on. If I had known that Uncle Dick was coming, I'd have saved myself a heap of worry."

"If I had had to telephone to him, it would have been too late," said Betty. "I just happened to find him In the post-office; didn't I, Uncle Dick?"

"I'd just got back from the fields and was after mail," Mr. Gordon explained. "I meant to stop and get directions from the Watterbys how to find the Saunders farm. Well, as it happened, everything was planned for the best."

"How did you get down from the loft, Bob?" Betty asked curiously.

"Cut the string that tied my wrists on a rusty