You see that she does, Mabel."
Patricia's commands seldom fell on deaf ears and Mabel promptly insisted
on a game of tag; while Patricia herself, accompanied by Nell Hardy,
started on a brisk run across the meadow.
At the garden gate, Patricia called a halt. "Duck," she ordered,
dropping on the grass. From half-way up the path, came Sarah's voice:
"Oh, Miss P'tricia! Miss P'tricia!"
"She'll go back presently, if she doesn't hear us," Patricia whispered
with elaborate caution; "then we must get to the house as quickly and as
quietly as possible and secure the re--the booty. Oh, go away!" she
added sternly, as Custard came sniffing about them.
But Custard only wriggled and danced about and over them, urging them as
eloquently as he could to get up and continue their way indoors. Wasn't
the pantry indoors? Custard could have told his mistress long ago that
it was quite supper time.
At half-past six, the doctor and Miss Kirby drove into the yard.
As the gig drew up before the side door, Sarah, voluble and indignant,
appeared. From the mass of information she hurled upon them, one fact
only was quite clear--Patricia was missing.
She was so often missing, that the announcement failed to excite any
great apprehension in the mind of either her father or her aunt.
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