"Yes," added Amy with a deceptive mildness, "if you hadn't called out just
then, Betty, the whole thing would have been over and the Thing would have
been drowned. And then," she added plaintively, "we would have been able
to enjoy our summer."

"It really wasn't any of our business, you know," Grace finished, moodily.

For a moment Betty sat and stared at them, undecided whether to be amused
or indignant. However, the latter emotion won and she turned upon the
girls with flashing eyes.

"I think you are all perfectly horrid," she said. "And I would think you
were worse if I weren't perfectly sure that you don't really mean what you
say. Why, just suppose," she went on earnestly, "that we had willingly
permitted that man to commit suicide? Why, we would have been just as
guilty as if we had murdered him!"

"But he may have done it since anyway," muttered Mollie stubbornly. "He
didn't have to wait to ask our permission, and there are plenty of times
that he can commit suicide when we are not around--if he really wants to
do it."

"What he or anybody else does when we are not around, is not our
business," answered Betty. "We can't help what happens in our absence."

"You seem to take it for granted that it is a man," Mollie continued,
still stubbornly argumentative. "But I am not so sure about that. The
several times that we have seen the--the--Thing--it has looked as much
animal as human to me."