was a good bit ahead and he had to push to catch up. It’s my I-mean-business-and-I’m-more-than-just-an-ounce-irked pace.
“What’s the matter with you?” Jimmy asked. “I didn’t mean anything.”
“It’s not that,” I said.
“Well, what is it?”
“Nothing,” I said. Then, “They got the suits about half an hour ago. Venie waved at me. You two had your heads down over the table.”
“I hope they got the smallest there were,” Jimmy said.
Suddenly, I put my hand on his elbow and stopped. “Hold on there. We’d better go back and go around.” I gestured at the hall ahead. “I don’t want to get bawled out by that old witch again.”
Jimmy looked at me with an impish expression. It’s the sort of expression his face, topped by red hair and set between prominent ears, is really fitted for.
“Let’s take a chance,” he said. “Let’s just run for it, and if she comes out we won’t stop at all.”
Maybe it was my moment to be impulsive. The hall stretched before us like a gauntlet. The door to old Mrs. Keithley’s office was open and we were far enough out of her line of sight to allow us a running start. We had to go about thirty yards beyond it, turn a corner left, and then we’d be out of sight and out of practical reach.
“All right,” I said. Feeling like little blonde-haired Susy Dangerfield running between the lines of hostile Iroquois braves, I took off. Jimmy was right with me on my left, and we pounded along. As we passed the old lady’s office, I shot a glance right, but didn’t see her.
Jimmy out-accelerated me, and as we made for the corner, he was a step or two ahead.
“Hey, slow down,” I said. “She isn’t even there.”
He turned his head to look back as he reached the corner, and still moving at considerable speed crashed blindly into someone. Jimmy bounced off and into the wall, but didn’t fall down. I skidded to a stop at the corner and looked down. It was Mrs. Keithley, white hair and all, sitting flat on her bottom with an expression of affronted dignity on her face. She looked up at me.
“Hello,” I said. “Nice day, isn’t it?” I stepped over her and walked at a very sedate pace down the hall.
Jimmy was stunned momentarily, but then he made the best of things. “It was nice to see you again,” he said politely to the dear old lady, and then walked after me. I shot a glance back at her and then Jimmy caught up with me and we both broke into a run and left her looking speechlessly after us.
When we were out of breath and out of sight, we stopped running and flung ourselves down panting on a flight of stairs. Then we started laughing, partly because it seemed terribly funny and partly from sheer relief.
When I’d caught my breath and stopped laughing, I looked soberly at Jimmy and said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m going to take the long way around from now on.”
“That’s a pretty obvious thing to say,” Jimmy said.
“Well, I’m not a very brave person.”
“Oh, I’m not blaming you. I’m going to be careful, too.”
* * *
When we got to the lock room, Helen was waiting in the hallway. All of us looked in both directions, and then Helen stepped up to the black door and gave a knock that was recognizably a signal and not a casual rapping by some passerby with an unaccountable desire to tap on black doors. The door swung open immediately and we all piled inside. Att, standing behind the door, gave us just time enough to get completely in and then shut the door behind us.
The room was green-colored, small and bare. The lock door was directly opposite the door we’d come in. The suits had been hung on racks that apparently were designed to hold them.
Jimmy looked around in satisfaction. “Ah,” he said. “Very, very good. Let’s get the suits on, Mia.”
I looked around at Venie and Helen and Att and said, “Where’s Riggy?”
Att said, “I couldn’t talk him out of it. He brought along an extra suit. You know how he wanted to go outside, too. Well, he went.”
Looking very unhappy, Jimmy said, “Well, couldn’t you stop him, Venie? You could have kept him from taking an extra suit.”
Venie said defensively, “If you only wanted one suit between the two of you, I could have made him leave one behind. He said he had as much