There was a horrified pause in which it was evident that Crying Alice had just realized what she had copped to. “No,” she replied. But it was clear she was lying.

“Oh, Mother!” cried Winifred. “Why can’t you think before you speak?”

“Your mother seemed quite upset on the phone,” said Mrs. Brookman. “She was crying.”

Sina and I glanced at each other but, of course, didn’t comment on this.

Nobody said anything else, but Winifred drew herself up and got a steely look. If her mother wasn’t going to stand by her father, Winifred was. When we got to Brookman’s, Mrs. Brookman dialed the number she had been given and gave the phone receiver to Winifred.

“Mother,” said Winifred tentatively.

“Waaaaaaaaah!” came the cry from from the other end.

“Now, Mother, pull yourself together. Father may be just fine. He may have, um, just gone for a walk. Or a drive. There’s no evidence.”

“Waaaaaah!”

“Whatever he did or did not do, I’m sure he did or did not do it for a good reason. We must stand by him, Mother, not go giving unhelpful interviews to radio people.”

“Waaaaaah!”

“All right. Well, I’m glad we had this talk. We’re all just fine here. Why don’t you call again when you have news or when you’re better equipped to keep up your end of the conversation.”

“Waaarrrrr waarrrrrr waarrrrrr!”

Crying Alice’s cries had taken on the unexpected addition of a burred r. She was a bit like an engine revving up. But what this presaged, we could not imagine.

“Good-bye, Mother,” said Winifred hastily and hung up.

She frowned for a second, her forehead all furrowed. We frowned, too, in commiseration.

“Well,” Winifred said finally, “she’s going to be no help. That much, I’m afraid, is clear.”

“What would you like to do, dear?” asked Sina.

“Go home,” said Winifred. “That is, to your home. Go home and wait for Zebediah and Wilfred.”

“Yes, of course,” said Sina.

Mrs. Brookman drove us back, the radio on the whole time, but there was no further news. We thanked Mrs. Brookman when we reached home and got out. We were almost at the door when she called through her car window, “By the way, how is Gladys working out?”

“Wonderfully!” called Sina back. There was enough misery that day without creating more.

And miserable it was. We might just as well have stayed at Brookman’s because three more times that day Crying Alice called Mrs. Brookman and Mrs. Brookman came to fetch Winifred. The first time was when the newscast said, “Planes have been dispatched to search for the Argot, but Lieutenant Colonel McGee, in charge of the operation, when asked if they expect to find the Argot, would say only, ‘It’s a big ocean out there.’” But when Winifred called her mother from Brookman’s, all Crying Alice would do was sob into the phone.