Katherine and her prisoner seemed a long time in reaching the foot of the ladder. Did Cora suspect something, perhaps, and was refusing to mount? Gladys strained her ears to listen and thought she heard a smothered giggle from below, but she could not be sure. The next minute the lights flashed below and the patent signal knock of the Sandwiches sounded on the wall.
“Here come the boys!” cried Hinpoha, hastening to answer the signal with a series of mystic thumps on the wall with the poker.
Then the Captain’s voice sounded at the foot of the ladder. “How many of you are up there?”
“Five,” answered Hinpoha, “and three guests.”
“We’re going to have a show. Want to come up?”
“Well, maybe, later,” answered the Captain. “Won’t you come down a minute? We’ve got something to show you.” And again Gladys thought she heard a smothered giggle from below stairs.
The girls trooped down the ladder, Sahwah running out with her face blackened and her hair in tiny pigtails, to see what the excitement was about. All seven of the Sandwiches stood there with sparkling eyes and prenaturally solemn faces. On the floor stood a good-sized box.
“Oh, nothing,” answered the Captain, trying to speak indifferently.
“There is too, something,” said Sahwah, looking critically at the express tags fastened to it. “Oh, I know what is is,” she cried, suddenly jumping up and clapping her hands in glee. “Your uncle in Boston has sent you the electric motor he promised you!”
The Captain tried to look indifferent and failed utterly. His lips would twitch into a smile in spite of all he could do.
“Do open it and let us see it,” said Hinpoha, and all the girls crowded closely around.
“You may have the honor, Miss Brewster,” said the Captain, bowing formally to Sahwah. The nails had been drawn and all Sahwah had to do was lift off the cover of the box, which she did with a great flourish. The next moment the girls sprang back in dismay and scattered wildly. The box was full of live mice, which jumped out and ran in all directions. Screaming at the tops of their voices the girls fled toward the ladder and crowded up as fast as they could go. Sahwah jumped for the swinging rings, which hung from the ceiling of the barn, and dangled safely in mid-air, making horrible faces at the Captain, at which he laughed uproariously. Sahwah and the Captain were always playing tricks on each other and this time she had to admit that he had scored heavily. So the Captain jeered and Sahwah vowed vengeance and the other Sandwiches stood around and laughed until their sides ached, for Sahwah, with blackened face and Topsy braids, hanging in the rings and sputtering, was the funniest sight imaginable.