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diff --git a/old/64430-0.txt b/old/64430-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index bde496f..0000000 --- a/old/64430-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4908 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Josie O'Gorman and the Meddlesome Major, by -Emma Speed Sampson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Josie O'Gorman and the Meddlesome Major - -Author: Emma Speed Sampson - -Illustrator: Isabel Bush Mack - -Release Date: January 31, 2021 [eBook #64430] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Mary Glenn Krause, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by the Library - of Congress) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOSIE O'GORMAN AND THE MEDDLESOME -MAJOR *** - - - - - Josie O’Gorman - and the - Meddlesome Major - - -[Illustration: The package tore and disclosed a mass of filmy -lace.--Chapter VII] - - - - - Josie O’Gorman - - and the - - Meddlesome Major - - - By - - Edith Van Dyne - - Author of - - The Mary Louise Stories, - and Josie O’Gorman - - [Illustration] - - Frontispiece by - Isabel Bush Mack - - The Reilly & Lee Co. - Chicago - - - - - _Printed in the United States of America_ - - - _Copyright, 1924 - by_ - The Reilly & Lee Co. - - _All Rights Reserved_ - - - _Josie O’Gorman and the Meddlesome Major_ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I JOSIE BECOMES A SALES GIRL 7 - - II THE NEW HOME ON MEADOW STREET 19 - - III THE NEIGHBORS IN APARTMENT 3 31 - - IV JOSIE’S LITTLE BLACK BOOK 44 - - V THE MAJOR TAKES UP A TRAIL 54 - - VI TOO MANY DETECTIVES 67 - - VII THE MEDDLESOME MAJOR CALLS 79 - - VIII MARY KEEPS THE FAITH 87 - - IX WHO IS MISS FAUNTLEROY? 98 - - X “THE WATERMELONS HAVE COME” 109 - - XI MRS. LESLIE WON TO THE CAUSE 118 - - XII A BOARDING HOUSE HERO 129 - - XIII JIMMY BLAINE GETS A SCOOP 141 - - XIV THE QUARREL NEXT DOOR 151 - - XV JOSIE SETS A TRAP 160 - - XVI MRS. LESLIE TURNS DETECTIVE 171 - - XVII THE GIRL IN THE RED TAM 182 - - XVIII JOSIE O’GORMAN’S VICTORY 191 - - - - -Josie and the Meddlesome Major - - - - -CHAPTER I - -JOSIE BECOMES A SALES GIRL - - -“Not much on looks!” - -“Who?” - -“That new girl the boss has just hired. Got no style to speak of. I -reckon they’ll begin her at the notion counter. It don’t take much -looks to hold down a job there.” - -“Brains, perhaps!” suggested a trim looking girl with twinkling grey -eyes and wavy brown hair, noticeable in that it was not so elaborately -coiffured as her companions’. “My opinion is, Gertie Wheelan, that Mr. -Burnett thinks more about brains than beauty where his business is -concerned.” - -“Don’t you fool yourself, Jane Morton. He may hire a plain one now and -then because the good lookers give out, but take it from me, there -ain’t a man livin’ that don’t fall for beauty.” - -“Well, since you are already so pretty, Gertie, suppose you give -us folks that run to brains a chance to doll up a bit. You’ve been -standing in front of that looking glass for ten minutes and lunch -hour’s most up,” said a stylish little black-eyed girl who might have -laid claim to beauty as well as wit. - -“Stop shoving me, Min,” begged Gertie. “Here, get in front of me. I can -see over your head, you are such a little thing.” - -“I’m young yet,” snapped back Min. “By the time I am as old as you are -I may grow some.” - -Age was Gertie’s tender point and Min’s sally drew a delighted laugh -from the girls assembled in the employees’ room of the department store -of Burnett & Burnett. - -While they were talking and laughing and primping a young girl quietly -entered the room, so quietly that she had removed her hat and wrap and -put them away in the locker room before the group around the mirror -was even aware of her presence. It was the new girl and Gertie Wheelen -was right--she was not much on looks, even less than that according -to the standards of the employees of Burnett & Burnett. She was small, -sandy haired, and her features, while not displeasing, were without -distinction; eyes pale blue and nose more or less shapeless. Her mouth -showed character and her teeth were white and even. Her complexion was -good, being clear and healthy with a sprinkling of freckles over the -formless nose. - -Gertie was wrong about the lack of style. Josie O’Gorman, while not -modish, had style; a style that was all her own. She managed by -arrangement of hair and cut of gown to look enough like other persons -to pass unnoticed in a crowd, and yet Josie’s dress changed but little -with the passing fashions and her intimate friends declared that the -only alteration of hair dressing she ever indulged in was to show her -ears or not show her ears according to the latest decree of fashion. -Her dress was always immaculate and always the same--in the winter, -blue serge with white collars and cuffs for the day, and white canton -crepe trimmed with lace for evening; in the summer blue linen took the -place of the blue serge and the canton crepe gave way to white linen or -organdy. Her immaculate state was due to the fact that she had many -gowns of the same model and innumerable collars and cuffs which she -always laundered herself. - -“That’s her now,” said Gertie as she caught a glimpse of the new girl -in the mirror over Min’s head. - -“She!” corrected Jane Morton. “The last lecture on salesmanship laid -especial stress on the importance of good English.” - -Josie bowed politely and smiled pleasantly but impersonally at the -girls. - -“How do you do?” said Jane. “I hope you will like Burnett & Burnett’s. -It is really a great place to work. I want to introduce you to the -girls.” - -“Glad to meet all of you--my name’s Josie O’Gorman.” - -“Where are you to begin?” asked Gertie. - -“Tapes, darning cotton and the like.” - -“What did I tell you?” Gertie whispered audibly to Min. - -“It is a good counter,” said Min. “It’s in the middle of the store -where you can see everything that goes on. I tell you a lot is going on -here lately--more ‘kleps’ have been busy. I’ve been working for Burnett -& Burnett ever since I was a kid and I know they have lost more in the -last month than they have since I was a cash girl. Seems like things -just vanish. It certainly made me hot when that box of point lace just -disappeared off the face of the earth. I wish Mr. Burnett would take me -away from the lace counter and put me over with the safety pins. Nobody -ever bothers to steal safety pins from a shop but just borrows them -from friends.” - -Josie laughed and decided she was going to like little Min and Jane -Morton. - -“Do you think somebody stole the whole box of point lace?” Josie asked. - -“No I don’t think it--I _know_ it. One minute it was there and the next -minute it wasn’t there. I reported it the second that I missed it and -Major Simpson, the detective, got busy right off but it was remnant -day and the store was packed and jammed with bargain hunters and that -lace was gone and gone for good. I sure did feel bad about it. I had -to go up to the office and answer a million questions and before they -got through with me I felt like I had swallowed the stuff and it was -choking me. There was about five hundred dollars worth of lace in that -box.” - -“Well how’d you like to be me and have some woman walk off with a -whole bottle of perfume at ten dollars an ounce?” asked Gertie. “Old -Burnett was sniffin’ around me so any body’d a thought I’d taken a bath -in the stuff. I just howled and cried to beat the band. I made so much -racket it took six floor walkers and the boss to pacify me and they -finally sent me home in a taxi. I reckon the next time a thief gets -busy at the toilet goods counter they won’t call on me to testify.” - -“Your tears cost ten dollars an ounce, do they?” laughed Josie. - -“Exactly!” - -“I fawncy the thief is someone from the outside,” drawled a girl who -had hitherto been silent and who had been introduced to Josie as Miss -Fauntleroy either because Jane Morton did not know her first name or -did not care to use it. Miss Fauntleroy was a very striking looking -young woman, tall, slender, and broad shouldered; a decided brunette -with wonderfully arched brows and lashes long enough to marcel, at -least so her co-workers at Burnett & Burnett’s declared. Her blue-black -hair was done after the latest mode, with waves and puffs and ringlets -galore and never a lock out of place even after the strenuous ordeal -of bargain day. Her voice was a deep contralto with a slightly foreign -intonation, although she had divulged to Min that she was born in -Hoboken, New Jersey, and intimated that she had cultivated the drawl -and accent because she considered it elegant. - -Of course Min had handed this information on to her best friends and it -had become common property at the department store that Miss Fauntleroy -was not near so mysterious as she would have one think. Her hands and -feet were large but her shoes were stylishly cut and her nails showed -much care and attention. She walked with a slow swinging gait and -seemed never to be in a hurry, even when closing hour was approaching. -She had proven herself an efficient saleswoman in the jewel and novelty -department. - -Josie O’Gorman’s ostensible business at Burnett & Burnett’s was the -selling of tapes and darning cotton, and so ably did she play the -part of shop girl that no one but her employers dreamed she was there -for any other purpose. There was nothing in the girl’s appearance to -indicate that she was the cleverest detective of her age and sex in the -United States. - -Shoplifting had developed into a serious matter in the department store -of Burnett & Burnett, so serious that they had found it necessary to -call in outside help on their detective force. Up to this time the -detective force had been more or less of a farce since it was what the -younger member of the firm, Mr. Theodore Burnett, designated as an -inherited failing, one handed down from father to son to grandsons. The -“force” consisted of one old gentleman known as Major Simpson. - -“I’m not saying poor old Simpson is not a good man, as good as they -make them,” Mr. Theodore Burnett said to Josie when she reported to the -firm in regard to entering their employ. - -“Good man but poor detective,” put in the elder brother, Mr. Charles -Burnett. “See here, Miss O’Gorman, we’ve got you over here from -Dorfield because Captain Lonsdale has recommended you so highly. I -fancy there are detectives right here in our own city of Wakely that -could do the business for us but you understand we don’t want poor old -Simpson to know we are employing outside help. He is very touchy--” - -“And very conceited!” interrupted Mr. Theodore. - -“Be that as it may, we don’t want to hurt his feelings as he has been -with the firm from the beginning. My grandfather stated in his will -that Major Simpson should have a job with us as long as he wanted it -and after that was to be pensioned.” - -“But the old duck refuses to be pensioned although we offered to pay -him more for not working than for working,” laughed Mr. Theodore. - -“I rather like that in him,” said Josie. “But now to come down to -what you want me to do. As I understand it I am to be employed by you -secretly and you are to turn me loose, giving me carte blanche as to my -methods.” - -“Ahem!” hesitated Mr. Charles, who had his own idea about how -everything connected with the department store should be run. “N-n-ot -exactly.” - -“Of course you are to work it your own way,” put in Theodore. “My -brother just means he’d take it as a favor if you report to us now and -then.” - -“Naturally! Well then, in the first place perhaps I had better have -another name to start with as somebody may know my true name. Not -because of my own reputation as a detective--I have none to speak -of--but because of my father’s. Perhaps you are aware of the fact that -my father was one of the most able detectives in America, and that -means the world, because we are up with the French and ahead of the -Russians in the detective business.” - -The Burnetts did not know it but they had the tact to pretend they did, -so Josie’s one tender point was spared a jab. Mary Smith was agreed -upon as a good working name and the notion counter as a fair vantage -point from which to view the comings and goings of possible shoplifters. - -“I should like a list of the names and addresses of all your -employees,” suggested Josie. - -“Certainly, Miss O’Gorman,” agreed the brothers. - -“Smith! Just forget my name is O’Gorman, please.” - -“Oh, sure! Miss Smith!” - -At this juncture there came a light knock on the door and without -waiting for permission a dapper little old gentleman entered the -private office of the president. Josie decided that the new comer -was as pompous in the back as he was in the front and when he seated -himself stiffly in a high backed chair she came to the conclusion -that he had achieved something which she had hitherto considered -impossible--for a person to be as pompous sitting down as standing up. -Evidently there was no doubt in the old gentleman’s mind that he was a -more important personage than either the president or vice-president -of Burnett & Burnett’s. As for the little sandy haired shop girl, who -was no doubt being employed by the firm--she was of no importance -whatsoever. - -“I wish to speak with you alone, Mr. Charles. Of course Mr. Theodore -may remain if he so desires, but--” he looked meaningly at Josie, -“others may retire. New girl, I presume.” - -“Yes--let me introduce you to Miss O’Gorman, Major Simpson,” said the -senior member of the firm. - -“Smith,” hastily corrected the junior member. Major Simpson did not -hear the correction and Josie was registered on the tablets of the old -gentleman’s memory as O’Gorman and O’Gorman she was forced to remain, -since it was deemed wiser not to take the present incumbent of house -detective into their confidence and being introduced by one name and -employed by another would certainly have caused suspicion. - -“I am sorry Brother Charles made the break,” Theodore said as he -accompanied Josie to the elevator, leaving his brother alone with Major -Simpson. - -“Oh, that’s all right,” laughed Josie. “I’m not much on aliases anyhow -and really prefer working in my own name. Please let me have the list -of employees and their addresses as soon as possible.” - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE NEW HOME ON MEADOW STREET - - -Wakely classed itself as a city, while Dorfield was content to be -listed as a mere town that might someday grow up. In spite of its size, -Wakely seemed to our young detective to be a very lonesome place on -that first Sunday she was compelled to spend away from all her dear -friends in Dorfield, where she had lived since her father’s death. -There were plenty of people in Wakely, too many people, in fact, -making the housing problem a serious one. But nobody knew Josie and -nobody cared to know her. Nobody paid the least attention to her at -the beautiful old church where she had gone to worship in the morning; -nobody spoke to her at the clean little restaurant where she had eaten -her Sunday dinner; and now as she sat on a bench in the city park, -nobody in all the surging throngs out for the usual Sunday stroll even -so much as glanced her way. - -Josie was not inclined to be lonesome. She was too interested in people -and things to think very much of her own aloneness, but there were -times when in spite of herself she felt a crying need for a real home -of her own; something more than the partitioned off rear end of a shop, -which was where she had been living for some time before coming to -Wakely. The place was called The Higgledy Piggledy Shop, conducted by -Josie and her friends Elizabeth Wright and Irene Mae Farlane, and they -had managed it to their profit and to the delectation of the citizens -of Dorfield, who found in it a long felt want. - -If the Higgledy Piggledies did not have what you wanted they would -get it for you, and if they could not do what you wished done they -would see to it that someone else did do it. For Josie the shop was -in reality a side line of the detective business, but it was of great -interest to her and she missed the gay chatter of the partners, the -daily visits of her dear Mary Louise--young Mrs. Danny Dexter--and -she sorely missed the kindly interest and advice of Captain Charlie -Lonsdale, the Chief of Police of Dorfield. He it was who had so highly -recommended Josie to Burnett & Burnett. - -“I almost wish he hadn’t,” sighed Josie as she sat on the park bench in -the wintry sunshine and watched the people of Wakely swarm past. “I -don’t care much who steals the stupid old dry-goods. It’s a dull job -and I’d be glad to be out of it.” - -“Hello! There’s somebody I know--but who on earth is it? Where have I -seen that boy before? Certainly I don’t remember ever having laid eyes -on his companions, rare birds that they are!” - -Many persons pride themselves on never forgetting a face, but Josie -might have patted herself on the back for never forgetting a pair of -shoulders, a set of head, a contour of cheek or chin. However, she was -completely baffled by the youth who had passed her as she sat on the -hard, cold bench. Our little detective was irritated that she could not -remember where she had seen that turn of cheek and line of shoulder, so -irritated that she decided the seat in the park was very uncomfortable -and she would trail along behind the trio and find out something about -them. Her curiosity was idle but was it not Sunday afternoon? Why not -let curiosity be idle as well as persons? - -The man and woman walking with the youth appeared too young to be the -father and mother of the boy and too old to be brother and sister, yet -there was an intangible resemblance to both that led Josie to conclude -they were his parents. The man was swarthy, black-eyed, and flashily -dressed in a checked suit, gray spats and a brown derby. He walked with -a slight swagger, twirling a slender cane in his lemon colored gloved -hand. - -The woman was small, inclined to be stout, and a great mop of henna -colored hair elaborately dressed in waves and puffs defied oversight -and invited scrutiny. She wore a handsome fur cloak and a purple velvet -hat. Her cheeks and lips were tinted a bright coral and her nose was -powdered like a marshmallow. In spite of the paint and powder there was -something youthful and attractive about the woman. She walked with a -light step and had a gay bird-like manner. - -The younger man, or boy--he looked about eighteen, Josie decided--had -an elegance that his companions lacked, although they would have been -greatly astonished had they been told that the quiet unimportant little -person, whom they had passed in the park and who later had passed -them on the sidewalk, considered them anything but the last cry of -elegance and fashion. Josie was able to get a good look at the trio at -a crossing. Undoubtedly the boy was the son of the bizarre couple. He -had his father’s bold black eyes and his mother’s delicate tilted nose -and softly rounded cheek. - -“Where--where have I seen him before?” Josie asked herself. “Never -mind, I’ll remember someday. In the mean time I think I’ll find out -where they live--not that it is any of my business--but one never can -tell when information will come in handy in this business of detecting -criminals. Anyhow I don’t trust those two, although I reckon the boy is -all right. He looks too young to be anything else but all right and he -looks honest, at least he looks honest in contrast to his father. My -opinion is that the old one is in checks now but has been in stripes, -or should have been. I wonder what they do. People, I’ll bet anything, -and they do them brown while they are about it.” - -Josie stopped to look in a window in order to let the trio get ahead -of her and then nonchalantly followed them at a safe distance. They -talked animatedly and their gestures were decidedly foreign-like in -their swift and jerky repetition. It was impossible for Josie to catch -what they were saying without seeming too interested in them, but it -was easy to see that both man and woman were endeavoring to pacify the -youth and persuade him to do something to which he was opposed. Once he -stopped short on the sidewalk and Josie came within earshot as the boy -said in a tone of suppressed violence: - -“I tell you I’m sick of the whole game. I’m going to quit!” - -“Oh, Roy, darling, not just now,” purred the woman, and Josie noted -that the R in Roy and darling was softly rolled, giving a slightly -foreign accent. “Not now when--” but the woman whispered the rest and -the listener could not hear what was the big reason for not quitting -just yet, nor could she gather what the game was that Roy wanted to -quit. - -The man said nothing, merely stood gnawing his moustache in a manner -highly melodramatic and cut the air viciously with his slender cane. -Josie loitered after them, wondering what part of the city they lived -in, what they did for a living, and in the back of her brain was always -the question: “Where have I seen the boy before?” - -Josie was stopping for the time being at a hotel, though she realized -it would never do for it to be known that a shop girl was living so -extravagantly. Early in life Josie O’Gorman had learned from her -illustrious father that in the detective business no detail was too -small to be overlooked. If one was supposed to be a shop girl then -one must live, eat, dress, act and talk like a shop girl. After three -days at Burnett & Burnett’s Josie had come to the conclusion that shop -girls were like any other wage earning girls, some silly, some clever; -some educated, some ignorant; some inclined to put all their earnings -on their backs, some saving up for a rainy day; but none of them were -able to live in hotels. So, to play the part, she must bestir herself -and find other quarters. The firm was paying her handsomely for her -time and she could well afford to keep her comfortable room and bath. -She was tempted to do it and give a false address if any of the girls -should ask her where she lived but she remembered one of her father’s -favorite sayings: - - “Oh, what a tangled web we weave - When first we practice to deceive.” - -This old saying had decided the matter for her and on that Sunday -afternoon she had armed herself with clippings from the “Boarders -Wanted” column in the morning paper and was determined to go the -rounds and settle herself as soon as possible. The trio she was -following turned the corner. Josie turned after them. Glancing at the -street sign she read that she was on Meadow Street. Several of the ads -were on Meadow Street. She ran quickly through them. - -The man, woman and youth went in at No. 11. It was a shabby, drab -looking apartment house. Yes, there was a room for rent in that very -house--“Widow and daughter wish to rent room to young business woman. -11 East Meadow, apartment 4.” - -Josie had liked the ad from the beginning. “They don’t flaunt their own -refinement in their ad and they say business woman instead of business -lady. They delicately inform the public that there is no brute of a -husband around. On the whole I believe I’ll rent a room at 11 East -Meadow. I can keep my eye on those flashy folk if I do. I suppose it’s -none of my business--but one never can tell.” - -Josie noticed that the interesting trio went in the house without -ringing one of the bells displayed in the lobby. “That means they -either live here or are intimate with someone who does,” was her -conclusion. - -Apartment 4 proved to be one of the back ones on the lower floor. The -family who had so interested Josie had entered the one marked 3. After -ringing the bell of No. 4, Josie had peered into the dark hall and had -plainly seen the fur coat of the henna haired woman disappear through -the door after the man in the checked suit had opened it with a latch -key. - -“That settles me,” thought Josie. “I’ll take this room if the widow and -her daughter turn out to be most undesirable landladies in Wakely.” - -Fortunately they turned out to be pleasant folk who had seen better -days, to which the refinement and taste in the furnishings of their -living room gave mute evidence. The tiny bedroom advertised for rent -suited Josie perfectly; suited also the part she must play as a new -shop girl at Burnett & Burnett’s with but little money to spend on -sleeping quarters. - -Mrs. Leslie did hemstitching and fine embroidery to eke out the salary -her daughter made as a stenographer. The home was neat, and while -Josie’s room had only one very small window, it did not open on a court -but had a view of a small back yard which Mrs. Leslie informed her -would later prove a great pleasure to them all. - -“It is really quite sweet, and the janitor says that in the spring -we may plant all the seeds there we want to. Mary and I will be much -happier if we have a place where we can dig. We never quite get over -longing for the country.” - -Everything being satisfactory, Josie moved in that very evening, the -question of references being waived because Mrs. Leslie had a feeling -when she looked in Josie’s honest face that she was going to like her; -and since one of the trusted employees of Burnett & Burnett’s came from -her county that fact was enough to guarantee the goodness of any one of -his fellow employees. - -“We are sorry not to give you your meals,” said Mrs. Leslie, “but Mary -and I live so simply.” - -“You couldn’t live too simply for me,” declared Josie, “but I wouldn’t -be any trouble to you for worlds. I can easily get my meals at one of -the many restaurants near here.” - -“Oh Mother, couldn’t we?” asked Mary. “Anyhow just breakfast--” and -Mrs. Leslie decided they could manage breakfast and dinner too. So -Josie was installed as a lodger and boarder and soon the lonesome -feeling departed as she began to think that perhaps Wakely was not such -a dismally lonely city after all. - -The Leslies were a gentle, pleasant, kindly pair, and Josie was sorely -tempted to tell them all about herself; how she happened to be in -Wakely and what her real profession was. But she remembered in time -what her father used to say, holding up a forefinger in impressive -fashion: - -“You know and I know and that makes eleven.” - -So Josie held her tongue. She was such an “eloquent listener” that -persons were inclined to tell her all about themselves and to forget to -ask for the story of her life. The Leslies were like most others and -found themselves chatting away to their new lodger with little or no -restraint. She found out they were strangers in Wakely, having lived -there only two months, knowing very few people in the town and none of -the fellow tenants. - -“We don’t even know the people who live right next to us,” said Mary. -“Mother says she is glad we don’t but I must confess I’d rather like -to know the boy. He is so handsome and kind of sad looking. I can’t -say much for the sister, though. She is handsome enough but at times a -little coarse and rough. The boy is at home only on Saturday afternoons -and Sunday. I have an idea he and his sister are not on very good -terms. I have never yet seen them go anywhere together. I can’t see -why, because if I had a brother I’d be tagging on after him all the -time.” - -“Especially if he were such a good looking brother as you say this -young man next door is,” laughed Josie. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -THE NEIGHBORS IN APARTMENT 3 - - -Josie reported for work bright and early Monday morning, so early that -she was able to have a private interview with Mr. Theodore Burnett -before the business of selling notions was booked to begin. He had the -list of employees and their addresses all neatly typed, also in what -department of the store each one worked. - -“I may not be able to keep up the farce of selling notions for very -long,” Josie explained to him. “You may have to pretend to suspend me -or something so I can have time to be a detective but I’d like to hang -on there for a few days so I can get the run of things.” - -“Suit yourself, young lady! We are in your hands. By the way, old Major -Simpson was rather curious about you. I do not understand why he wanted -to know so much about you.” - -“I don’t either. Perhaps he met my father in days gone by.” - -Whatever the reason, Josie could but notice that the pompous old -detective spent a great deal of time hanging around the notion counter. -He seemed to be vastly interested in what she was doing and was -constantly bumping into her whenever she left her department. She even -fancied he dogged her footsteps when she went out to lunch, and was -sure that he followed her all the way home. - -“It can’t be my beauty that is attracting him, because there is no such -thing; and it can’t be my wit, for he has not heard me say a word. It -must be that I look like my father and somewhere in his profession as -detective he met my father.” - -It was a well known fact that Detective O’Gorman had been one of the -homeliest men in the service, but such was his little daughter’s -admiration for him that she never could get a compliment that pleased -her so much as for someone to say she resembled him in the slightest -degree. - -“Old Major Simpson would have been a joke to him, but there may be some -intelligence in the old fellow after all. There certainly is if he -admired my father.” So thought Josie as she walked through the streets -of Wakely, conscious that a bombastic old gentleman was dogging her -footsteps. In her work of selling notions she was sure that never a -paper of pins was sold by her without the house detective’s knowledge. -At first it irritated her, but in the end she found it an amusing game -to elude his watchful eye. - -By carefully studying the list of employees she soon was able to fit -name to face over the whole store and place each person in his or her -proper department. Then came the job of finding the address of each -employee. - -“It seems to me important to know if any of them are living beyond -their means,” she explained to Mr. Theodore when he asked her why -she went to work in such a systematic manner. “When persons begin -to do that, then it’s time to look out. They have a motive for -getting-rich-quick, and sometimes when there is a motive the action -follows fast.” - -Poor old Major Simpson had a hard time keeping up with Josie. Every -evening after the store was closed the girl made it her business to -check off a certain number of fellow workers, quietly rounding up their -homes, sometimes walking with them under a pretext of having business -in their neighborhoods, sometimes merely following them. The panting -and puffing detective lost the scent continually, and then Josie felt -sorry for him and made it easier for him the next time. Gradually she -made friends with the employees, careful always to be the listener -and for that reason universally popular. So completely did she efface -herself when she happened to make one of a crowd that the girls would -actually forget her presence. - -Miss Fauntleroy, the tall handsome girl at the jewel counter, was one -person to whom Josie found it difficult to make up. She had a cold -manner and attended strictly to business. The address given on the list -was a suburban one, 10 Linden Row, Linden Heights, and Josie was forced -to put off looking into her surroundings until the winter weather -abated somewhat in its ferocity. - -“Not that I mind the weather,” she said to herself, “but it would be -too bad to take the old Major out where there are no paved streets -while snow is up to one’s knees. He might catch his death.” - -There was a let up in the shoplifting, no trouble having occurred -since Josie entered the employ of Burnett & Burnett. She had been with -them two weeks and except for the fact that she proved to be an able -saleswoman of notions, she had accomplished nothing. - -“You had better dismiss me and let me go back home,” she said to Mr. -Theodore. “You certainly have no need of me here, and the Higgledy -Piggledy Shop is missing me sorely.” - -“Not at all!” declared the junior member of the firm. “We have plenty -of need of you. It may be that there is no shoplifting because the -thief is afraid of you.” - -“But how could he know I was here?” - -“Perhaps others know of the fame of your father as well as old Simpson.” - -“Perhaps--but after all I am not supposed to be so much a watchdog as a -blood hound. If detectives were simply preventives they would lose all -their cunning and skill from disuse. I am sure you could find a cheaper -watchdog than I am.” - -“Well, we are not kicking about the price so why need you?” - -Josie had had many interviews with the members of the firm and felt -they were her friends and respected her. She especially liked Mr. -Theodore, who seemed somewhat more progressive than his brother, but -both of them were kindly and courteous. Mr. Theodore, who was an old -bachelor, had invited Josie to dine with his family; insisting that his -mother and sisters would come and call on her and that they would be -delighted to make her acquaintance, but Josie had firmly refused. - -“Not while I am selling notions,” she had laughed. “It would leak out -in the store somehow and then someone would suspect immediately that -I was not what I seem to be. Major Simpson is already worried about -me and my job. I’ll wager he is standing outside of this door right -now and his moustache and goatee are both bristling with curiosity -concerning what the business is that brings me to your private office -before opening hours. He would have his ear at the key hole if he dared -and if his sense of dignity didn’t forbid. Why don’t you take him into -your confidence? It doesn’t seem quite fair somehow.” - -“Fair enough! If he wasn’t so conceited we might have you work with -him but he is so cock sure of his own ability. I give you my word, -Miss O’Gorman, he has never yet landed a shoplifter. Sometimes they -have been caught by clerks or floor walkers, but old Simpson can’t see -beyond his own embonpoint. Of course if you want his help--” - -“Heavens, no!” laughed Josie, “but I should like to know what he knows -about me and my being here, and why he doesn’t come out and say so if -he does know who I am. Is he at all peeved with you and Mr. Burnett, -your brother?” - -“Not at all. In fact, he seems especially delighted with us as well as -himself. I can always tell when he is pleased by the way he smiles on -me and strokes his goatee.” - -Three weeks had passed and Josie felt she was not earning her salt. -Carefully she watched the lower floor of the store from the vantage -ground of the notion counter. Two bargain Fridays had come and gone and -as far as Burnett & Burnett could tell not one single person had left -their emporium without either paying or promising to pay for the goods -carried off. - -The evenings with the Leslies were quiet and peaceful. The neighbors at -No. 3 left early and returned late. Josie occasionally caught a glimpse -of the man and his wife but she had not seen the girl. The youth, she -had encountered twice in the street and still his appearance puzzled -her. She was more certain than ever that she had seen him before, but -where? - -“I believe they are kind and charitable, anyhow,” said Mary. “I met a -terrible looking old beggar in the hall coming from their apartment and -I am sure they had given him something because the lady spoke to him -in such a gentle tone and he answered her gently and--” - -“What did they say?” asked Josie. - -“I couldn’t make out, but it sounded kind of foreign. That made me -think maybe the woman has found out there is someone of her nationality -here in Wakely and she is kind to him because he is from her own -country.” Mary was the type that always made the best of everything and -everybody. - -“Well, for my part, I think it is a great mistake to encourage tramps -and beggars,” said Mrs. Leslie. “Now in the country we never could do -it. If we even so much as fed one tramp we had a swarm of them coming -to us for years. My husband once gave one an old suit of clothes and -some shoes and after I had fed him Mr. Leslie told him he could spend -the night in the barn because it was coming up to snow. After that a -week never passed that some disreputable old bum didn’t come whining to -my back door. It kept up until we had the road gate painted, posts and -all, and then they let up on us and we began to think that the first -one had put the tramp’s mark on our gate and all the others read it and -knew we were kind hearted. Of course the paint destroyed the mark.” - -“What a wonderful mark to have on your gate!” exclaimed Mary. “I wish I -knew what it was and could put one on our door.” - -“Perhaps one is there,” suggested Josie, “and I saw it and ventured in.” - -“I don’t want any real tramps around here,” insisted Mrs. Leslie. “You, -Josie, are less like a tramp than any one I ever saw. I felt safe with -you from the moment you entered the door and I never have felt safe -with any tramp. I don’t like to think that tramps might be coming in -and out of this house and if I ever see or hear of another one being in -the hall I am going to complain to the landlord.” - -“Oh, Mother, please don’t! What would our neighbors think of us?” - -“It makes mighty little difference what they think. People who don’t -speak our language and have tramps calling on them have no business -thinking.” - -Josie laughed. Mrs. Leslie’s feeling in regard to tramps and foreigners -was a common one with persons born and raised in the country. They -encouraged neither tramping nor immigration. - -“We have two beggars at Burnett & Burnett’s,” said Josie, “one at the -front entrance and one at the back. It is against my principles to -give to street beggars but I have a hard time getting by those two. The -Associated Charities are constantly asking the public not to encourage -beggars but send them to the A. C. so that they can look into their -cases. I am sure they are right, and good citizens should uphold them; -but beggars such as we have at our front and back entrances seem to be -able to appeal against reason and I am sure they reap a substantial -harvest. When charitable ladies get up tag days for their pet concerns -they should man the stations with just such beggars instead of -attractive young girls.” - -“I thought begging on the street was against the city ordinances,” said -Mrs. Leslie. - -“Oh, they get around all laws by pretending to sell something. This -beggar man at the front door sells lead pencils and the woman at the -back goes through the motions of selling newspapers. She never has the -last edition and always whines if anyone wants change. She is a husky -looking person and I believe is well fed, in spite of the pretext she -makes of dining off crusts.” - -“Poor thing!” exclaimed Mary. “I’m sorry for her even though she may be -a fraud.” - -“Of course there is no easy way of making an honest living,” laughed -Josie, “whether it be pounding a typewriter or--selling notions.” It -was on the tip of Josie’s tongue to say lying in wait for shoplifters. -“Begging is not such a bad way to spend your time if you are interested -in human nature. Of course it must be rather hard on the man at the -front entrance because he wears a patch over one eye and part of his -game is to keep the other one half shut. That means he can’t see all -that is going on, but who knows? He may be able to see more with half -an eye than many persons can with two wide open ones.” - -“The beggar I saw in the hall had a patch over his eye. I noticed it -particularly, and felt sorrier than ever for him. I’d have given him -something if he hadn’t hurried away so fast when I came in.” - -“A great many beggars seem to be minus one eye,” said Josie. “I -remember reading once of a great French detective who captured a -notorious criminal, who was operating as a blind beggar with a patch -over his eye, because the _pseudo_-beggar inadvertently changed blind -eyes. The detective had passed him many times on the Pont Neuf in -Paris, where the beggar had stood for weeks and weeks whining a pitiful -tale. Now this detective, like all good ones, let nothing escape him, -and he had noticed that the blind beggar wore a patch over his right -eye. One morning the patch had moved to the left one. That set Mr. -Detective to thinking and he watched the man. When darkness came the -man stopped begging for the day, hobbled from the bridge into a nearby -crooked street and there he straightened up, took off the telltale -patch and walked briskly along the side walk. Then it was an easy -matter to track him to his luxurious lair. Begging was merely a side -line, as burglary on a large scale was his real profession. He was -attempting to conceal his identity under the cloak of a mendicant.” - -“I still say, poor fellow,” said Mary. - -“And I say,” said Mrs. Leslie shrewdly, “that if I were a detective -I’d wonder what on earth made you, Josie, go into being a shop girl. I -begin to think it is nothing but a side line with you.” - -Josie, being completely off her guard, hardly knew how to answer Mrs. -Leslie. She did not deem it wise to take mother and daughter into -her confidence concerning her true business in Wakely. She blushed -and stammered like a veritable novice at the game of concealment and -falteringly assured Mrs. Leslie that she had been forced into selling -notions because of reverses in her family fortunes. - -“To be sure the wages are not so very high,” she continued, “but -Burnett & Burnett’s is a pleasant place in which to work. Then, too, it -is so nice to be here with you and Mary that I don’t mind being in a -store all day.” - -Mrs. Leslie expressed herself as satisfied concerning her lodger’s -profession but she afterwards said to her daughter: “She has a kind -of high-brow way with her at times that makes me doubt her being just -a poor girl; and her clothes, while they are simple, are made of such -good material. You can’t fool me on dry-goods. I tell you, Mary, -Josie’s dresses are made out of stuff that cost five dollars a yard.” - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -JOSIE’S LITTLE BLACK BOOK - - -“Now I’ve talked too much!” Josie took herself to task after retiring -to her room. “Mrs. Leslie has some kind of suspicion concerning me and -it is all my own fault. I wonder what my father would have done under -the circumstances.” - -She took from her top drawer a little leather book; her most valued -possession and without which she never traveled. It was a chunky little -book, evidently home made. The pages were covered with neatly written -lines which, to the uninitiated, looked like so much Greek script. It -was in reality a cryptic shorthand invented by Detective O’Gorman and -known only to him and his daughter and one other--a certain criminal, -Felix Markham. How he came to know this family code is another story -altogether. At any rate, in the United States Josie was the only person -who could make heads or tails of this writing, as her dear father had -gone to that far country where detectives find no work to do, and -Markham had fled to China after having executed a daring escape from -the penitentiary. - -In this little book the detective had inscribed many homely sayings, -some original but most of them borrowed from Poor Richard’s Almanac, -the Proverbs of Solomon and other like sources. Josie often amused -her friends by quoting these bits of wisdom as though her dear father -had been responsible for all of them. Also in this book was written -much that was interesting and valuable concerning criminals with -whom O’Gorman had come in contact; descriptions of their appearance, -habits and peculiarities, as well as the lists of their aliases and -professions engaged in as blinds. - -All of this was interesting reading and Josie never tired of conning -over the difficult script. Reading between the lines she caught hints -of successes which the noted criminologist was too modest even to put -in his diary, although it was written in a shorthand known only to -himself and his daughter and was meant for no other eyes. - -On this night it was not her father’s successes that interested Josie, -but his failures. The last twenty pages of the little book were filled -with his failures and analyses of why he had failed, also admonitions -to his daughter as to what she should avoid in the way of pitfalls for -a detective. - -“When you find you have aroused suspicion in the mind of someone as to -your real business which it is perhaps expedient to conceal, do not -be too quick to allay those suspicions as the person concerned will -no doubt be on the lookout to trap you. If, in the course of time, -you quietly do or say again the same thing that first aroused the -suspicion in the mind of the person and then, being on your guard, make -some casual explanation, it will be more convincing than changing too -quickly and appearing for that reason rather unnatural. For instance, -if, the better to catch a criminal, you have been taking the part of -a lowly person, say a dishwasher in a restaurant, and inadvertently -you show yourself to be educated--do not immediately revert to slang -and double negatives to throw the person to whom you have revealed -your culture off the scent, but rather show other bits of learning and -then have a plausible story ready to account for a dishwasher knowing -something beyond hot suds and drainers and tea towels.” - -“There I am!” exclaimed Josie. “I am not sure just what it was that -started Mrs. Leslie but I think it was the free and easy gabble about -Paris bridges and luxurious lairs. Now I must bring up the subject -again and talk some more about the same thing and then give her some -kind of song and dance that will sound plausible enough to throw her -off the scent. Then I’ll jump back to the subject of bone buttons and -linen tape and maybe haul in something about a handsome floor walker at -Burnett & Burnett’s.” - -Satisfied with the plan, Josie devoutly closed her little book and went -peacefully to sleep, wickedly hoping that somebody would do a little -shoplifting the next day to keep her from dying of ennui. - -Breakfast was hurried and she had little time to talk to Mrs. Leslie. -One could not be very tactful nor use much finesse with a mouth full -of hot oatmeal porridge. To talk about the crime wave in Paris so -early in the morning would be ridiculous. It must keep until evening. -Perhaps she was mistaken about Mrs. Leslie having any suspicion of her. -Mary was as gentle and lovely as ever and her mother was certainly -most considerate and cordial in her insistence that Josie should have -another cup of coffee. After all, she had nothing to conceal--that is, -nothing that would be to her discredit. It was only that she deemed it -wiser to keep to herself her real business in Wakely. Of course if Mrs. -Leslie became too suspicious it would be a simple matter to tell her -the whole truth. - -That morning the girls started to town a little earlier than was their -custom. It was Saturday and a half holiday. Mary had some extra typing -on hand she was anxious to finish and Josie wanted to interview Mr. -Theodore Burnett before the store opened. As they stepped into the -public hall of the apartment house they ran into the same beggar of -whom Mary had spoken the evening before. The hall was unlighted except -for a pale streak of sun that tried to find its way through the dingy -glass of the street door but Josie did not need much light to recognize -the man as the beggar who sat at the main door of Burnett & Burnett’s. -The man began a pleading beggar’s whine and held out his hand to the -girls. Unfortunately for him Mrs. Leslie opened her door at that moment -to call a last good bye to her daughter and to remind her of some -promised errand. The sight of the beggar angered her and she spoke -sharply to him: - -“Begone sir!” she cried. “It is against all rules of the house to have -beggars in the hall.” - -“Excuse! Excuse!” and the man bowed humbly, shuffling off with bent -back and palsied head. As he passed the irate lady, Josie caught the -flash of resentment that glowed in his one eye. - -“Oh, Mother, the poor fellow!” said Mary. “I feel so sorry for him and -you hurt his feelings terribly.” - -“He’d no business in the hall. Perhaps I was a bit hasty. Here, run -after him, Mary, and give him this penny. But tell him he mustn’t come -back here.” - -Mary added a small sum to her mother’s penny and hastening after the -man pressed it in his hand. Josie, who was close behind, again caught -an expression on the man’s face--a leer of admiration for the pretty -young girl with her fresh rosy face and kind blue eyes. - -A view of him in broad daylight convinced Josie that he really was the -beggar who had the desirable stand at the front entrance to Burnett & -Burnett’s and also the realization came to her that she had seen the -man before and that it was not as a mendicant. - -For the second time since Josie came to Wakely she puzzled her brains -over where before she had seen or known a man, this time an old -one. She was still in doubt as to the identity of the young man who -evidently lived in the apartment next to the Leslies, and now a palsied -old beggar was adding to her perplexity. - -“I’ll keep an eye on him during the morning and perhaps I’ll remember,” -she promised herself. - -It was a busy morning but between sales Josie managed to get an -occasional glimpse of the one-eyed beggar at the gate. He, too, was -doing a thriving business. Josie wondered if the woman at the rear -entrance was playing in such good luck as her rival in the front. -Once during the morning she had occasion to pass by the back door and -could look out at the female newsie. Straggling iron gray hair was -blown by the wintry breezes across a round, plump face which Nature -had doubtless intended to be wreathed in perpetual smiles and which -seemed with difficulty to assume an expression of misery and woe. Her -comfortable, well rounded body was arrayed in pitiful rags. Josie -determined to study her more closely and accordingly when the store -closed she made her exit by the rear door. - -“Pa-a-perrr! Pa-a-perr!” quavered the woman in a tone that spoke of -utter misery and dejection. - -A genial gentleman stopped to buy one. - -“Is it the last edition?” he asked. - -“Ye-e-ss sirr!” she whined, “the very latest.” - -He handed her a quarter of a dollar. - -“I haven’t an-y ch-aa-nge, sirr.” - -“No change? Well then keep it!” he exclaimed with a note of irritation -in his voice. - -Saturday was a short day for the employees of Burnett & Burnett’s -and Josie determined to use the afternoon in looking up some more -residences of her fellow workers. The day was pleasant, with a hint of -premature spring in the air; an excellent day for checking up on some -of the suburban addresses. - -“I wonder if Major Simpson will follow me. Anyhow, I have chosen a -balmy afternoon for his jaunt if he decides to take it,” she laughed. -“I have a great mind to give him the slip.” - -By the simple expedient of going up one elevator and down another Josie -eluded the old detective, who was evidently on the lookout for her. She -then quickly made her way to the rear exit and was out on the street -before the old gentleman realized that the young person in whom he was -taking such an unaccountable interest had flown the coop. - -“Ding bust it!” he remarked eloquently, “I’ll come up with her yet.” - -Miss Fauntleroy was immediately in front of Josie, moving with her -accustomed slow grace. The girl was well proportioned and Josie had not -realized before how very tall she was. Being of rather a diminutive -statute herself, she seemed almost a dwarf by the side of the stately -young woman. - -“Pa-a-perr, pa-a-perr,” quavered the old woman in an irritating whine. - -Miss Fauntleroy stopped and holding out a dime asked for a newspaper. -Her voice was singularly hard and cold but the old beggar seemed rather -amused as she answered: - -“Yes, my prr-r-ty! Here’s your Jou-r-rnal.” - -“Give me my change,” demanded the girl haughtily. - -“Change? Sur-r-ely you know an old woman like me can’t make change.” - -“Well you’ll make it for me or give me back my dime,” said the girl -angrily, her voice breaking hoarsely. She snatched the money from the -old woman’s hand and rudely twisting and rumpling the paper so that it -would be difficult to sell to another customer, she threw it into the -basket at the beggar’s feet and then walked proudly away. - -While Josie held no brief for beggars of any sort, neither those who -begged outright nor those who begged under the guise of selling back -number papers or pencils made of scrap lead, still her heart was kind -and it tried her sorely to witness the rudeness and direct unkindness -of the inconsiderate Miss Fauntleroy. - -“Here! I’ll take that rumpled paper,” she said gently, handing the -correct change to the old woman. “I can smooth it out and read it on -the trolley.” She stooped swiftly and picked up the twisted Wakely -Journal. - -“No, no, lady! I’ll give you a nice clean pa-perr,” insisted the -newsie, reaching eagerly for the one that Miss Fauntleroy had thrown -so disdainfully in her basket. But Josie clutched it tightly and was -soon lost in the crowd, while the old woman sat dazed and disconsolate, -forgetting to cry her wares as the employees trooped forth from Burnett -& Burnett’s. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE MAJOR TAKES UP A TRAIL - - -Josie jammed the rumpled paper in the big patch pocket of her sport -coat and thought no more about it. She boarded the interurban trolley -which passed through Linden Heights, wondering if Miss Fauntleroy could -be on it and doubtful whether it were better for her to get off at -Linden Row with that haughty and evidently bad tempered young woman -or to ride on for several blocks. The crowded car thinned out as they -approached the suburbs. Josie was soon able to make sure that the girl -was not on board. - -“Let me off at Linden Row, please,” she asked the conductor. - -“Sure, miss, an’ the sign was put up only yesterday so I know where it -is. The streets out here ain’t marked reg’lar.” - -Linden Heights presented the appearance of much suburban property -aspiring to become urban; streets and avenues named, sidewalks laid -out, curbing placed, everything ready to make a thriving, prosperous, -homelike neighborhood--everything but the homes and the neighbors. The -houses were few and far between and Linden Row, though boasting a brand -new name on a brand new corner and a brand new row of spindling linden -trees, had not a house to its name. Josie walked north until the sad -young street lost itself in a corn field; then she retraced her steps, -crossed the car tracks and walked south until a swamp interrupted her -progress, and still no habitation. Bullfrogs were singing their spring -song in the swamp so Josie felt repaid for her long ride on the trolley. - -“It means spring is almost here,” she said to herself, “is here, in -fact. It’s a surer sign than thunder and lightning; surer than the -robin’s whistle or trailing arbutus blossoms. How my dear father did -love to hear the bullfrogs!” - -So far as Josie could ascertain Linden Heights was nothing more than a -real estate map. At any rate there was not a single house in the place -with the exception of an old farm house, the mansion of the original -owners of the tract, and when Josie knocked on the door with a trumped -up plea that she was hunting a place to board, she was met without much -encouragement by an old man with a tousled beard and mane who gave her -to understand that he couldn’t abide women and wouldn’t let one of them -stay on his place for five minutes. At least she had found out what she -wanted to know: Miss Fauntleroy did not live there. - -“Very puzzling!” she mused. “Why did she give a fictitious address to -her employers? The first interesting thing that has happened since I -came to this town. I hope it will lead to something. Anyhow I’ll watch -this strange girl and find out something more about her. She certainly -was very rude to the old beggar.” - -On the way back to the city Josie decided to read the paper she had -bought from the old woman, but at that moment she became engrossed -in the conversation of some of her fellow passengers and the Wakely -Journal remained in the patch pocket of her sport coat. - -“The only thing I regret about my fruitless trip to Linden Heights is -that I didn’t have the company of old Major Simpson,” Josie amused -herself by thinking. “I shouldn’t call it fruitless, however, as it may -lead to something. Anyhow, I’m wondering what the dear Major did in my -absence.” - -Had Josie realized what the dear Major was doing in her absence she -would not have been quite so nonchalant in her idle surmises. No -doubt his actions would have amused her but certainly they would have -irritated her as well. - -In the first place, Josie had hardly made her escape by the rear -entrance of the department store when Min, whose surname was Tracy, -gave a hurry call from the lace counter that in putting up her goods -she had discovered the loss of many yards of the filmiest and finest -lace in stock. The counter next to her reported missing a very -expensive imported gold mesh bag. A hue and cry was raised by the -excited Major Simpson and after much pompous blustering he had rushed -to the office of the chief executives where he not only reported the -theft but demanded Josie O’Gorman’s address. - -“So you have a suspicion of who she is then, this Miss O’Gorman?” asked -Mr. Theodore Burnett. - -“Yes, I’ve had my eye on her for days. I have not been in the detective -business for all of these years without being able to distinguish a -girl of her type from a simple saleslady of buttons and what not.” - -“Well, you are pretty clever, Major. I hope you two can get together. -You say she has gone for the day? Do you think she can clear up this -shoplifting mystery?” - -“Of course she can if anyone can. Give me her address and maybe I can -overtake her.” - -“Eleven, East Meadow, Apartment 4, is her address. It is remarkable -that a girl as young as she is can be so successful. She is very clever -I think.” - -“Yes--altogether too clever!” muttered Major Simpson. “But she will -find there are others,” he intimated darkly. - -“Yes, yes!” said Mr. Burnett uneasily, “but for goodness sake don’t be -short with her. I am sure that through her we may be able to track down -the whole gang of shoplifters.” - -“Trust me, my dear Theodore, trust me!” said the Major, patting his -white vest comfortably. “I will use all the finesse that my long -service in this establishment has fostered. You need never fear that -Silvester Simpson will be anything but a diplomat.” - -“Oh sure! Sure!” added Mr. Burnett quickly. “I’ll leave it to you but I -beg of you that you communicate with Miss O’Gorman at once.” - -“Immediately!” and the Major strutted from the office. - -“Eleven, East Meadow,” he mused. “That is the right address. I have -followed her home often enough to know, but I asked Theodore just to -see if the person had the temerity to give her real address.” And the -old gentleman, not trusting his short legs to carry him to number -eleven fast enough, hastily called a taxi. - -When Major Simpson rang a bell he did not simply touch a button, he -pressed it, and that with no light finger but with the end of his -walking stick, leaning heavily against it until the bell was answered -or broken. - -Mrs. Leslie answered it quickly and somewhat indignantly. She had a -sponge cake in the oven and the noise of the bell was enough to make it -fall. - -“What is it, sir?” but her tone of asperity quickly changed when -she saw who was responsible for the clamor. “Well if it isn’t Major -Sylvester Simpson. Sakes alive, Major Simpson, how did you find me -out? I’ve been telling myself every day for two months that I ought -to let you know I was in Wakely because of our families being kind of -hereditary friends, but Mary and I are living in such a small way, -and--” - -Major Simpson--Major by courtesy only--made up in gallantry what he -lacked in finesse. Not for worlds would he inform Mrs. Leslie that he -was not looking her up at all and was quite as astonished to see her -as she was to see him. He remembered her quite well as little Polly -Bainbridge, whose grandfather’s farm was just across the creek from -the Simpson’s farm. She had been a little girl when he was a grown man -spending his yearly holidays in the country. He remembered faintly once -having made her a present of a pink parasol on one of those visits. She -was a very small girl and he was even then a floor walker at Burnett & -Burnett’s. Perhaps that was how he happened to know the appeal a pink -parasol has for a little girl. - -Now that he had found her he must come in and see her. Of course it -could not be that the person of whom he was really in search could -possibly be living with Polly Bainbridge--now Mrs. Leslie--who came -from his county and was of honest and respectable parentage as had also -been her husband, people of good blood and reputation. - -The Leslies’ living room was homelike, pleasant, and spotlessly clean, -but with a certain feminine disorder in the way of a work basket -open on the table, a scarf thrown over the back of a chair, a bit of -embroidery on the sofa. This made an irresistible appeal to Major -Simpson who, though a bachelor, was a great admirer of “the ladies” -unless they happened to be “sales-ladies.” These he always regarded -with suspicion as being either incipient shoplifters or, worse than -that even, designing females who aspired to become Mrs. Simpson. - -He settled himself in a comfortable overstuffed chair, conveniently low -enough to allow him to cross his plump legs, and sniffed the pleasing -odors emanating from the tiny kitchen. - -“You must excuse me a minute,” blushed Mrs. Leslie, “but I have a cake -in the oven.” - -“Ah, that sounds like home!” declared the gallant Major. “And when I -say home I mean the country. I fear me the city ladies trust to the -bakers for such--” But Mrs. Leslie could not wait to find out what -the city ladies trusted to the bakers as her cake had been in the -prescribed number of minutes and the gas must be turned off and the -cake turned out of the pan. - -The major sniffed again. “Coffee!” was the verdict of his olefactory -nerves. Like the Raggedy Man: “His old nose didn’t tell no lies,” for -in a few minutes Mrs. Leslie returned with a tray of coffee and some -hot doughnuts she had just finished frying when her bell pealed so -loudly and persistently. - -The guest _ummed_ and _ahhed_ with appreciation. He was self -congratulatory that the little girl to whom he had once presented a -pink parasol had grown into such a fine woman. He always had been a -person of discernment and from the beginning he had known that little -Polly Bainbridge was of the right sort. It was a pleasant thing to feel -that a pink parasol cast on the waters might after some thirty odd -years--or was it forty--be returned to one in the shape of fragrant -coffee and hot doughnuts. - -First, all the county news must be retailed and a bit of mild gossip -concerning old neighbors be whispered. Major Simpson had long ago -given up the habit of spending his holidays back home since the old -folks had all died off and his ancestral halls passed into the hands -of strangers. But his interest in all pertaining to his county was as -strong as ever. - -“I only go back for funerals, now,” said the old man sadly. Mrs. Leslie -thought of the last funeral she had attended in that part of the world, -that of Mr. Leslie, and her eyes filled with tears. The gay little -coffee and doughnut party seemed in danger of becoming as sad as a wake -but Mrs. Leslie brushed away her tears and smiled on her guest, filling -his cup and pressing upon him another doughnut. So by simple grace -happiness and good cheer were restored. - -“Now tell me of your daughter. It seems strange for little Polly -Bainbridge to have a grown daughter. Do you two ladies live here all -alone?” - -“Oh no! We have a lodger--Miss O’Gorman. By the way, Major Simpson, she -_says_ she is employed at Burnett & Burnett’s.” - -Mrs. Leslie could not resist a slight emphasis on the “says” although -she had promised Mary to try and forget the strange suspicions that had -arisen in her mind concerning her gentle little lodger. - -“She says right!” declared the Major shortly, suddenly remembering -that he was a detective out on a scent. “What do you know of the young -person?” - -“Nothing--nothing at all! She came here in answer to an advertisement -my daughter and I put in a Sunday paper. We took her in without -references. Come to think of it, her saying she had a position with -Burnett & Burnett seemed to me all the reference I needed since you -were one of the firm.” - -“No, no, dear lady--not yet--merely a trusted officer of the company. -But tell me more of this Miss O’Gorman. How does she impress you? Do -you feel that she is not--er--er exactly what she pretends to be?” - -“Oh Major Simpson, it seems wrong to doubt the girl but--” - -“But what?” - -“She is a nice girl--a lady, in fact, but I can’t believe she is -exactly what she says she is--I mean a girl with a job selling bone -buttons and things. Not that there aren’t a great many ladies in -shops--I don’t mean that there aren’t--and elegant gentlemen, too, but -there is something about her and her clothes--” - -“Ah! Her clothes! She seems to me to be simply dressed, more so than -most of her fellow employees.” - -“Exactly, but have you felt of them?” - -“Not exactly!” answered the detective with dignity. - -“I mean the material is so good, it would take almost a month’s salary -to pay for one of her dresses, unless she makes a great deal more than -girls just beginning usually make. And she has all of her dresses -duplicated.” - -“Was it only her clothes that made you think she was different?” - -“Oh no, it was the way she talks. I hadn’t really had a positive -suspicion of her being something she said she wasn’t, or rather not -being what she said she was, until last night when we were sitting -around the table reading and sewing. Josie got to talking about noted -criminals and what they did and how detectives caught them--” - -“Just stuff she had read in cheap magazines, I presume.” - -“No, not fiction but facts.” - -The Major became as eager as a hound on trail. Here were -facts--excellent things for a detective to know--and in the possession -of a woman. How easy it would be for him, with his years of experience, -to wheedle this artless soul into telling all she knew. - -“Ah, facts! Now, er-er-my dear neighbor, just what do you mean by -facts?” asked the Major, making a great effort to appear unconcerned. - -“Well, she spoke kind of familiarly of Paris and her accent sounded -like our teacher’s used to--not at all like pupils. I always have my -doubts about anybody who has too good an accent in French. I think -she felt I was suspicious of her because she shut up all of a sudden. -Please tell me, Major Simpson, have you also some suspicion concerning -our lodger?” - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -TOO MANY DETECTIVES - - -Major Simpson looked at his hostess with blinking eyes. Although he -had spoken scornfully of cheap magazine fiction that had no doubt put -melodramatic notions in Josie’s head, the truth of the matter was -that the old gentleman devoured them himself in private, especially -the ones dealing with crime and clever sleuths. How often in these -stories unsuspecting women, landladies and lodging house keepers, were -unconscious means of tracking desperate criminals. The detective came -to a sudden conclusion. He determined to take into his confidence this -gentle lady from his own county. Anyone who had such a light hand at -doughnuts and could brew such clear rich coffee must have finesse. She -was the one of all others to help him in his business of determining a -difficult point in his profession. He leaned forward and grasping the -widow’s plump hand, patted it tenderly. - -“Mrs. Leslie--Miss Polly--er-er-Polly, little Polly Bainbridge, I -wonder if you will help an old neighbor and friend in a most important -matter.” - -“Help you, Major Simpson! How can a woman like me serve such a -gentleman as you?” - -“Know then, my dear Mrs. Les--I mean Polly--I may call you Polly I -hope--” - -“Certainly, Major Simpson!” - -“Well then, my dear Polly, you have under your roof a character that -is under suspicion. I serve at Burnett & Burnett’s in a confidential -capacity as their trusted private detective.” - -“Land’s sakes!” cried Mrs. Leslie, who had an inborn respect for the -law and all persons appointed to uphold it. But according to plays she -had seen and the movies, a detective always wore a shabby brown derby -and box-toed shoes. Here was her visitor, an acknowledged detective, -in the smallest and neatest of polished oxfords, and from her chair -she could plainly see a silk hat on the marble topped table in the -reception hall, the kind of hat that might have been worn with impunity -by presidents of republics or prime ministers of monarchies. - -Having under her roof, or rather under her ceiling--because Mrs. Leslie -had never felt that the roof of the apartment house belonged to her -in the least--having under her ceiling a suspicious character was -not nearly so exciting to that lady as harboring a live detective. -She reasoned that Major Simpson must be an excellent detective since -he had never divulged that it was in that capacity he served Burnett -& Burnett, the opinion being in his county that he was a “kind of -partner” in the firm. - -Tales of mystery had always been Mrs. Leslie’s dissipation--it might -be truthfully said her only dissipation--and now it was a delightful -thing that what had hitherto been a dissipation should be put upon her -as a duty. Surely everybody would consider it her duty to assist an old -neighbor and family friend in any way possible. - -“Help you! Indeed I will. Tell me what I must do first.” - -“Tell me something of the life and habits of this young person, who has -so imposed upon you.” - -“Well, she is quiet, gentle, considerate and unassuming. I certainly -have to give her that. She is never a mite of trouble but always helps -Mary and me about any household tasks that come up, very much as though -she were a daughter of the house.” - -“Um-hum! Sly, very sly!” puffed the major. - -“She is orderly and regular in her habits. Keeps her room as neat as a -pin and never leaves anything lying around.” - -“Afraid of giving a clue to her carryings-on. She is no doubt a -hardened adventuress.” - -Mrs. Leslie thrilled with excitement. She felt delightful cold chills -running up and down her backbone and her eyes were snapping and her -cheeks glowing as though under the spell of no less a person than Anna -Katherine Green or Mary Roberts Reinhart. “The Bat” himself had not -been able to make her shudder more happily. For the moment she lost all -feeling for Josie, of whom she was really very fond, but thought of her -only as a character in fiction and herself as the astute heroine who -would track her to her lair. - -“She is very much interested in Mary and me and encourages us to tell -her all kinds of things about our home in the country. I am afraid we -have told her many family secrets, nothing of grave importance because -we have led quiet, sheltered lives up to the last few months, but just -stories of the farm and Mary’s childhood and my girlhood. She is such a -good listener and we have talked to her very freely.” - -“Of course you have. That’s part of her game; to get information of all -kinds about neighborhoods and then work some kind of fraud on them. -She is more than likely to go down to our county and get in with folks -there and steal the spoons and the registered letters or something. I -tell you, Polly, I know their game--these slick ones. I’ll be bound she -has talked mighty little about herself. Do you know any more about her -home life, where she came from, what she did before she started to ‘do -you’ than you did when she first came to you?” - -“No, I’m afraid we don’t.” - -“Exactly!” - -“But tell me what you think the poor girl has done?” asked Mrs. Leslie, -who could but feel sorry for criminals even though they spoke French -with a French accent. - -“Done! Why I have my suspicions that she had stolen from Burnett & -Burnett many hundreds of dollars worth of real lace as well as a gold -mesh bag that is easily worth a hundred. She is suspected by Mr. -Burnett, too, but we are to go easy with her as we hope to track to -their lair others who were able to get away with thousands of dollars -worth of goods a few weeks ago.” - -“What makes you think she has done it?” gasped Mrs. Leslie, her -backbone continuing to tingle deliciously over such expressions as -“Track to their lair.” - -“Many things have led me to suspect her,” said the Major with -impressive gravity. “She has studiously avoided my scrutiny and when I -have attempted to follow her on the street she has with great ingenuity -evaded my pursuit--given me the slip, as we say in the profession.” - -“Then you have followed her?” - -“Repeatedly! No doubt you have noticed that she seldom comes home -immediately after closing hours, but walks around town, up one street -and down another. Now is not that in itself a peculiar way for a nice -young woman to behave?” - -“Perhaps!” - -“To my way of thinking it is very peculiar. Another thing is that -she has ingratiated herself into the good will of many of the clerks -at Burnett & Burnett’s. She has followed the same method with them -that she has with you; always inviting confidence and never revealing -anything concerning her own life and affairs. I have questioned some -of them closely and all have nothing but good to say of Miss Josie -O’Gorman. Now that in itself is unnatural and shows she has a sinister -influence.” - -“Ah, Major Simpson, I fear you are sarcastic.” - -“Not at all, my dear Miss Polly! Young women in business are just like -young women in society and are chary of expressions of admiration for -members of their own sex.” - -“But why do you think that my lodger has stolen these valuable -articles? What proof have you?” - -“None as yet--but that is where you are to help me. When the clerks -reported the theft to me, immediately my instinct was to find this -O’Gorman. It was within a minute of closing time and I would have -gotten her but she seemed to divine that I was on her heels and jumped -into an elevator. I followed in the next but she came up as I went -down. You may imagine, my dear madam, how annoying it was to one of my -years--and I may add, dignity--to be see-sawing up and down an elevator -shaft in pursuit of a wretched little sandy haired girl. I give you -my word I went up and down three times, always missing her like a -foolish scene in a motion picture comedy. Then I took my stand at the -front door, hoping to catch up with her in that way but she evidently -slipped out the back door and once more gave me the slip. Now, however, -I have tracked her to her lair--if such a charming parlor as yours -could be called a lair--and with your able assistance I am sure I can -catch up with her.” - -“You have not told me yet how I am to assist you.” - -“Simply by keeping your eyes open and reporting to me at every turn. I -want to know every detail in regard to the movements of this O’Gorman -person. I should like very much to see her room. I might gather some -information that would escape the notice of a novice.” - -“It seems kind of underhand--I mean on my part, but I’ll take you to -her room and if I get out of this mess I never intend to advertise -again for lodgers. Mary and I will have to manage somehow. I know Mary -will be greatly put out when she hears of my helping you. She has taken -a great fancy to Josie. You see, we both call her Josie by now.” - -“It just shows your kind heart and your daughter’s loving disposition. -If I were you, Mrs. Leslie--Polly--I would not mention the matter to -Miss Mary. She might feel it her duty to warn the young woman that we -are on to her tricks and she might escape. The fewer who are taken into -a plot the better. But show me the young person’s room--I might say -lair or den, because all criminals are more or less like animals and -those terms are very appropriate. To call your sweet homelike parlor by -such an epithet was criminal in itself.” - -Josie’s room was as neat as a hospital, not a thing out of place. -Mrs. Leslie opened the closet where hung the several dresses of the -suspiciously good material. - -“Just feel of them,” she demanded, and since they were merely hanging -in a closet the Major did not deem it too familiar to comply with her -request. It was not as though they were on the young woman’s person. - -“Yes, very fine quality,” was his verdict, his memory harking back to -early days at Burnett & Burnett’s When he stood behind the counter and -measured cloths. “And look at the shoes!” - -Josie’s one vanity being her feet, she was very particular about her -shoes. Feet being one of the many vanities Major Simpson possessed he -was a better judge of shoes than materials for dresses. On the floor of -the closet was a neat row of shoes all on shoe trees and all highly -polished. - -“Don’t tell me! A girl standing behind a counter couldn’t afford to -wear such shoes as these. Look at the cut! Look at the leather! Every -heel as straight as a die and the ties of the finest grosgrain. Her -shoes would give her away as masquerading if nothing else would.” - -The inquisitive visitor must then have a peep in the bureau drawers. -All was neat as a pin. The Major, being an old bachelor and extremely -fussy about his personal belongings, could but be impressed by the -exquisite order of the youthful criminal’s bureau. - -“Such a pity! Such a pity!” he muttered. “But no doubt there is some -good in the worst of them. And what is this little book?” - -He took from the back of the top drawer Josie’s precious little -homemade book filled with her father’s notes. - -“Ah,” he said with an air of finality, “Greek! Now tell me, my dear -lady, what a salesgirl wants with Greek. It is proof positive. I need -look no farther. Of course I had no notion that I would find any of the -purloined goods here in her room. Those, no doubt, she has taken to the -home of confederates. Now my task will be to find where those persons -live and recover the stolen articles and place the criminals behind -bars.” - -“How terrible! I can’t think of Josie in such surroundings.” - -“Remember, you are to help me, dear Polly. I can’t tell you what -your assistance in this matter will mean to me. You need have no -compunctions in the matter. Remember that this girl is false as sin to -have palmed herself off on you and your innocent daughter. She has not -considered you in the slightest. Now promise that you will telephone me -if the least thing arises to increase your suspicion, or better than -that, get a taxi and come to me immediately. Burnett & Burnett will -reimburse you for any expenses incurred. Here is my card with my home -address and telephone number in case something should occur of import -between now and Monday. You promise?” - -“We-e-ll ye-e-s--but somehow I--” - -“Of course you have compunctions. That is your kind heart. All of the -Bainbridges were kind hearted--but all of them were also noted for -being law abiding. Now it is the duty of every citizen to help the -law to track criminals. It is kinder to get them while they are young -than wait until they are hardened to crime. Now this young person may -be saved if she is cut off from evildoing while she is yet soft and -tender. She will be placed in a home of correction and taught a useful -trade, while if she is allowed to escape and pursue her wicked ways she -may even end on the gallows. One crime leads to another and shoplifting -may develop into arson and murder.” - -“All right! all right!” cried the poor distracted Mrs. Leslie. -“I promise to do what you ask of me--but somehow it seems mighty -inhospitable. I wish my suspicions had never been aroused.” - -“Exactly! But now that they are aroused I am sure you will live up to -the traditions of your excellent family and do your duty in spite of -any gentle feminine compunctions you may have.” - -The major had read his hostess aright. His appeal to the traditions of -her family were too much for her, and although her sympathy could but -be enlisted with the supposedly desperate young criminal lodging with -her, she felt she must uphold law and order, and before her guest took -his pompous departure she had promised him faithfully to communicate -with him if the slightest suspicious action on the part of Josie -evinced itself. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -THE MEDDLESOME MAJOR CALLS - - -The jaunt to Linden Heights had consumed a good part of Josie’s -afternoon but it had given her food for thought and cheered her -up. Nothing so cheered Josie as a problem to solve. Why should the -handsome, chilly Miss Fauntleroy give a fictitious address? Why should -she be so cross and heartless in her manner with the fraudulent old -beggar woman? Not that the beggar women had seemed to mind; on the -contrary she had seemed highly amused by the tongue lashing from the -proud beauty. Rather a pleasant old beggar woman she seemed. It was -rather nice of her not to want to sell Josie the rumpled newspaper. She -had seemed really distressed that she should have taken it. That was -because she, Josie, had been decent to her. Josie smiled and patted -the bulging pocket of her neat sport coat which still held the rumpled -journal. No doubt the old woman was a fraud but she was at least a -kindly, goodnatured one. - -As Josie turned the corner at Meadow Street she could plainly see two -persons coming down the steps at No. 11. She was sure that one of them -was Major Simpson and the other one the youth who lived in apartment -3, and whose identity was still a mystery to her. However, the problem -of who the young man might be troubled Josie very little at that -moment. What occupied her thoughts was why should Major Simpson be -coming from that apartment house. Could he have been trying to find her -whereabouts? If so, had the Burnetts disclosed the fact that she was -employed by them, over his head as it were? - -Josie had thought for a moment that Major Simpson and the youth were -together, but in this she was mistaken. They had merely happened to -come down the steps at the same time. The old man proceeded down the -street while the young one came towards Josie. He was evidently unaware -of her approach, Josie as usual wearing an aura of inconspicuousness -that enabled her to pass persons without being noticed. But it so -happened that as the young man got within a few feet of the girl he -caught her eye. Josie was sure that for the flick of an eyelash there -was recognition in his glance. Of course it might have been that -he was aware of the fact that she lived in an apartment next to the -one occupied by his family. But no! That glance of recognition had -something furtive in it. Again she was sure that she had seen the youth -before. Something about the spacing of his features was strangely -familiar, something about his chin, the contour of his olive cheek. - -“Well, time will tell, as Father used to say,” Josie mused, “and in the -mean time I must get busy about other things.” - -Mrs. Leslie’s manner was, to say the least, highly artificial when she -greeted Josie on her return. The lady flushed and fluttered, treating -Josie more like a guest than a member of the family. - -“Let me take your coat, do,” she insisted. - -“No, indeed.” - -“Would you like a cup of coffee and some fresh doughnuts?” - -“I certainly should! But let me come to the kitchen and attend to -myself.” - -“Oh no, I’ll bring a tray for you.” So the hostess burdened Josie with -attentions, all the time with a strained excitement in her manner. - -“I thought I saw Major Simpson coming from this house, just as I came -around the corner. Could it have been he? He is Burnett & Burnett’s -private detective.” - -Mrs. Leslie was not a good dissembler but remembering the policy laid -out for her by Major Simpson, she at first pretended she had burnt her -hand on the coffee pot and must run put some soda on it and then when -Josie repeated her question she feigned not to hear aright. - -“Simpkins? Nobody has been here of that name.” - -“No, Simpson--Major Simpson--perhaps he has acquaintances in the -building. There was no reason why I should jump to the conclusion that -he had been here, certainly no personal reason.” - -Josie did not push her inquiry because she realized that for some -reason or other Mrs. Leslie was concealing something from her in regard -to Major Simpson. What it was she could not divine, but the lady’s -heightened color and strained, artificial manner meant something -besides the usual Saturday baking. Her deliberate misunderstanding of -the name of Simpson was too apparent to fool the astute Josie. She -came to the conclusion that the old detective had been calling on Mrs. -Leslie and for some reason she had been told by him to keep the matter -a secret. - -“Mysteries and more mysteries!” thought Josie. “I wonder what Father -would have said to this.” - -As soon as she finished her luncheon of coffee and doughnuts she went -to her room, determined to read a little in her leather bound book. -She opened the top drawer. A sudden consciousness came to her that -someone had been meddling there during her absence. In the first place -her beloved book was not as she had placed it--close in the corner, -back out--but had evidently been examined by someone and then tossed -carelessly back into the drawer. - -“Don’t be such an old maid!” Josie admonished herself. “It doesn’t mean -a thing. Perhaps Mrs. Leslie had some curiosity about my belongings. It -is pardonable for a poor lady who has mighty little to occupy her mind -to open up a lodger’s drawer and snoop around a little.” - -Wait, what was that? Certainly Mrs. Leslie did not wear heavy gold cuff -links, in fact Josie had noted particularly that her landlady’s house -dresses were all made with sleeves cut a little below the elbow and -that she never wore cuffs. She, then, was not the meddler who had left -evidence of his or her presence in Josie’s top drawer in the shape of -part of a heavy gold cuff link. Josie picked it up gingerly. There was -a large heavily engraved letter S on the flat button. - -“If he had left a visiting card for me I could not be more certain that -old Major Simpson has been calling,” laughed Josie to herself. “But -why? And why is Mrs. Leslie so silent about it? And above all, how am I -to act now? One thing sure, I must not let the poor dear lady know that -I am on to the fact that she is concealing something from me. I don’t -believe Mary is in on this mystery, whatever it is, but I’ll wait until -she comes home and test it.” - -Josie put the broken link carefully away in her purse and then sat down -to do a little necessary mending on her coat, a button loose here and -a tiny rip in one of the pockets. She drew forth the twisted afternoon -paper, throwing it carelessly on the bed and again she thought of the -proud Miss Fauntleroy and her rudeness to the old beggar woman. She -heard Mary come in and her mother’s question: - -“Did you bring an afternoon paper?” - -“Oh, I forgot! I’ll run get you one immediately. I’m so sorry, Mother.” - -Josie smiled. Mary always forgot the paper on Saturday afternoon and -Mrs. Leslie never forgot to ask her about it. - -“I have the early edition,” Josie called from her room. “Don’t go out -again, Mary. It’s rather rumpled but I guess I can smooth it out.” - -Josie reached for the afternoon paper and began straightening it out -just as Mrs. Leslie appeared at the half opened door of the bed room. -The girl was astonished to find that there was a parcel of some sort -wrapped within the folds of the paper. It dropped out on the bed and -then slipped to the floor. Mrs. Leslie stepped forward and stooped to -pick it up but Josie, ever quick and agile, was before her. The tissue -paper package tore and disclosed a crumpled mass of filmy lace and, -gleaming through its folds, a golden mesh purse. - -“What is that?” demanded Mrs. Leslie sharply. - -“I’m sure I don’t know. It seemed to be wrapped up in the afternoon -paper which has been reposing in my pocket all afternoon,” said Josie, -coolly. “How it got there I’ll leave you to find out. I must hurry out -again as I find I have an important matter to attend to.” - -Josie’s quick eye had recognized a Burnett & Burnett tag on the purse -and her quicker mind had traveled like lightning back to the time -Miss Fauntleroy had angrily twisted the paper and cast it in the old -beggar’s basket. Then she remembered how loath the old woman had been -to let her buy that particular paper. - -She stuffed the parcel of lace in her pocket, placed the delicately -wrought mesh bag in her own purse, and without waiting to hear what -Mrs. Leslie had to say she hurried into the street and hailed a passing -taxi. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -MARY KEEPS THE FAITH - - -“Stop her! Stop her!” Mrs. Leslie called to Mary. “She’s a thief--an -out and out thief!” - -“Mother! You must be demented!” exclaimed Mary. “Do calm yourself. You -can’t mean Josie O’Gorman.” - -“I do mean Josie O’Gorman and I rue the day we ever took her in. I -thought all the time her French accent was too good to be true. Now I -have seen what she has stolen--seen it with my own eyes. Her clothes -are of too good material for a girl who can’t make very large wages and -her shoes are too fine for one who rents a little room from us--” - -“Mother, Mother! Please calm yourself and tell me what you are talking -about. What has Josie seemed to have stolen, because I am sure she -has only seemed to have. I could swear she is honest--swear it on the -Bible.” - -“Major Simpson was right--horribly right--and now I must get hold of -him immediately--I promised--Oh, but I also promised not to let you -know anything about it and here I have blurted it out.” Mrs. Leslie was -walking up and down the living room like a caged tigress, literally -tearing her hair. - -“Now, Mother, take this dose of aromatic spirits of ammonia and then -sit down and tell me quietly all that is troubling you.” - -“Here, give me the ammonia, but I haven’t time to sit down. I must -phone to Major Simpson as soon as possible. Thank goodness we have had -a phone put in. Only suppose we did not have one. What a time I would -have. I’d have to dress myself and go out on the street and maybe wait -in line at a public booth.” - -“Major Simpson! Who on earth? Is he the old gentleman from our county -you used to know when you were a little girl--the one who gave you a -pink parasol once?” - -“Yes, the same--and he has been here to see me--so kind and courtly--so -anxious for our welfare--so pleased to see me and anxious to meet you. -He is Burnett & Burnett’s private detective and is on the track of this -Josie O’Gorman. I promised to help him and now that I have actually -seen her with the stolen goods in her pocket I am going to tell him -about it.” - -“Oh, Mother, you surely cannot bring yourself to shame a dear girl like -Josie. She can explain it I am sure. She is a member of the family and -our duty is to protect her.” - -“Not at all! Our duty is to bring her to justice. The law is the law -and we have no right to take it in our own hands. I am not saying I -am not fond of Josie--I cannot help liking her although I have seen, -with my own eyes, stuff in her coat pocket; a great bunch of lace that -Major Simpson says is worth hundreds of dollars and a gold mesh purse, -imported and worth I don’t know how much. She saw I saw too, and when I -asked her what she meant by having the things she said she was sure she -didn’t know but would leave me to find out and then she hurried out as -cool as you please. Major Simpson had just told me, not fifteen minutes -before, that those identical things had been stolen from the shop -and he had a kind of idea from various things that had occurred that -Josie was the shoplifter they have been trying to catch for months. -Indeed I think he is a marvelously clever gentleman to track her as he -did. I promised him I would help if the slightest thing that looked -suspicious should turn up, and now I must keep my word.” - -Mrs. Leslie took down the receiver of the recently installed telephone -and consulting the card Major Simpson had left with her, called a -number. - -“Mother, Mother!” cried Mary. “The only reason I can bear your doing -this is that I know dear Josie can explain. Perhaps it is best to give -her a chance rather than to go on suspecting her of a heinous crime. As -soon as she comes in I shall quite frankly ask an explanation of her -and I am sure she will be as anxious to clear her name of this charge -as I am to have it cleared.” - -Mrs. Leslie could not answer her daughter as at that moment she heard -Major Simpson on the line. - -“Yes, Major, it is Mrs. Leslie--Polly Bainbridge that was. That girl -has come in and with my own eyes I have seen a package of lace that -looked as fine as fine can be and a beautiful little gold mesh purse. - -“Where is she, you say? Gone! Gone in the twinkling of an eye. Up and -out before I could say ‘boo’ to her. She just stuffed the things in -her pocket when she realized I had seen them and without endeavoring -to make the least explanation, but feigning a kind of stupid ignorance -of what she was doing with them, she clapped on her hat, pulled on her -coat, and was gone. - -“Will she come back, you say? I don’t know Major Simpson, I am sure. -She has left all her things here, but I should think she would be -afraid to come back when she knows I know she has stolen those things. -I have no idea where she went. She just said she had urgent business to -attend to and was gone. - -“Could I swear to the things? Well, Major Simpson, I should hate to -have to, but if the worst comes to the worst I certainly can put my -hand on the Bible and swear that I saw Josie O’Gorman put in her pocket -a parcel from which had fallen a gold mesh purse with one of Burnett -& Burnett’s tags on it and that the parcel certainly contained a -great deal of filmy lace. How much I could not say as it was twisted -up into a tight package. I am sorry, Major, but my daughter was in -the apartment at the time and I was forced to tell her of what I had -learned about our lodger. Yes, she is very sad over it and says she -will ask the girl all about it as soon as she returns. Mary is just -like her father, so kind that she thinks nobody in the world is wicked. - -“Oh, you say she must not mention the matter to Miss O’Gorman. All -right, Major Simpson! Mary is a good girl and I am sure she will obey -me, but she is so fond of this Miss O’Gorman that it will go hard with -her to help trap the poor thing. Yes, of course I understand it is our -duty to aid the law where criminals are concerned. I’ll do all I can, -but it goes against the grain somehow. Yes, she was right down brazen -about the things being in her room. Of course she didn’t know I knew -anything about them--in fact, I pretended I didn’t hear her when she -asked if you had been here. She thought she saw you coming out of the -house as she turned the corner. Of course that shows she has a guilty -conscience to think you had been here. Well, Major Simpson, I’ll do -my best, not only because it is my duty but because you are an old -neighbor. I’ll call you if she comes back. Oh, of course I must pretend -it is some other matter and not call your name because she could hear -me phoning. Perhaps I’d better go out to a public booth. That would be -best. - -“You say just call your number and ask for Mr. Silvester and say ‘The -lemons have come’ and you will understand? That will be fine. Well, -good bye!” - -Mary had listened to the foregoing harangue with a sinking heart. It -was easy to gather from her mother’s part in the conversation what the -old gentleman’s share had been. She well knew her mother’s failing, if -failing it was, a love of a mystery and how she had always flattered -herself that she knew human nature. She also knew that her mother’s -kind heart always got the better of what she was pleased to call ‘her -better judgment,’ and if matters should come to a showdown that she -would probably expend more energy in her endeavor to protect a criminal -than in convicting one. Mary was sure that her friend was innocent and -it was sorely against her will that she was made to promise that in the -event of Josie’s return to the apartment she would say nothing to her -about lace, mesh bags, shoplifting or portly old private detectives. - -“Just be perfectly natural in your manner,” commanded her mother. -“Behave as I do--not that I think she will return. It would be entirely -too dangerous now that she suspects Major Simpson has been here. She -certainly realizes that I saw the purloined articles.” - -“But her clothes! What will she do without her clothes?” - -“Why, my dear, criminals of that sort never stop for clothes. She may -have rooms all over the city as far as we know and as many aliases as -she has rooms. There is no telling how long she has been living in -Wakely. Major Simpson says these robberies have been going on ever -so long at Burnett & Burnett’s and he rather thinks this girl may be -responsible for all of them.” - -“Oh, Mother! I can’t believe this is really you talking this way. Why, -Josie is almost like a sister to me I have grown so fond of her, and I -am sure she loves you dearly. If we should have suspicion cast on us -she would not believe we were wicked but would do her best to help us. -After all, you have not a thing to go on but what a silly old man says.” - -“Major Silvester Simpson is far from being a silly old man. He is an -elegant, courtly gentleman,” Mrs. Leslie retaliated with some heat. -“He is not only from our county but from the very best blood in the -county, and what he says and thinks has much more weight with me than -protestations of innocence from a little Miss Nobody.” - -Mary felt that silence was the only thing with which to combat her -mother’s argument, so with a sad face, and wiping away a few tears that -she could not keep back, she endeavored to lose herself in a book until -Josie should return, for certain she was that their little lodger would -return. - -Mary and her mother were usually in accord and both of them felt -exceedingly uncomfortable that a disagreement had arisen. Mrs. Leslie -busied herself with her embroidery, looking up every now and then -at her daughter and sighing involuntarily. Mary endeavored to read -but tears would dim her eyes which necessitated a furtive use of her -handkerchief. Both of them missed the gay intimate chatter that it was -their custom to indulge in. Mary was the first to break the silence. - -“By the way, Mother, I saw another beggar in the hall. This time it was -an old woman, at least her hair was gray, though she certainly could -step along at a lively rate. I saw her actually running up the steps -exactly as though a mad dog was after her. I was coming in our door -and my impression was that she was going in No. 3, but it looked kind -of prying for me to wait and see. That Mrs. Kambourian must be a very -charitable lady with the tramp mark on her door.” - -“Well, well! What have we come to? I think you and I had better go back -to the country, Mary, what with beggars and shoplifters right in the -same house with us. Now in the country we never had such things happen.” - -Mary laughed. - -“But, Mother, remember how the Taylor’s dog killed our sheep; and -weasels slit the throats of the chickens; and the turtles in the branch -got our ducklings; and the crows ate the corn before it had time to -sprout; and the city man shot your prize gobbler thinking it was a wild -turkey; and old Uncle Eben’s pipe burnt up the tobacco barn.” - -“Yes, yes, but none of those things were human beings doing wrong, not -even Uncle Eben’s pipe. Here in the city it is human beings that worry -a poor woman to death.” - -“Are you so worried, Mother? I thought you were rather enjoying -yourself.” - -“Well, Mary, I believe you are right. I am enjoying myself and feel -that I am living in the pages of an exciting detective story.” - -“If only it has a happy ending!” sighed Mary. “In detective tales the -one you think did the crime never is the right one and I believe this -tale will work out that way. I am sure my dear Josie will prove to be -as good as we have thought she was all the time.” - -“Perhaps you are right, Mary. Anyhow we must read the story to the end -and not skip any. If Josie is innocent it will all come out in the last -chapter.” - -Then mother and daughter kissed and were happy again as they sat and -waited for the detective story to develop. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -WHO IS MISS FAUNTLEROY - - -Josie’s taxi carried her quickly to the home of Mr. Theodore Burnett. -Fortunately she found him in. The old colored butler who answered the -bell seemed greatly astonished that a young lady should be calling on -the master of the house and not on his mother and sisters. - -“You mean Ol’ Miss, don’t you lady, I mean Mrs. Burnett and Miss Lily -an’ Miss May? They’s all to home an’ I wouldn’t be ’stonished if they -ain’t ’spectin’ of you ’case they done tol’ me tea in the settin’ room -at five sharp.” - -“No, Uncle,” laughed Josie, “this is a business call and I must see Mr. -Burnett immediately. Please give him my card.” - -“All right, lady, but--well all right! I reckon I mought jes’ as well -take you right off in ter the liberry if you air so ’termined lak ter -see the boss. He ain’t so partial ter doin’ business of a Sat’day. -Don’t you reckon you mought prospone it ’til Monday?” - -“No, I must see him now. If you take him my card I am sure he will see -me.” - -“Yassum, but I hate ter pester him so. He’s worrited enough what with -sneak thieves a liftin’ goods off’n the sto’ right under the nose of -these here detecertives he done pay out so much money to. I hearn him a -tellin’ Ol’ Miss sumpen ’bout it at lunch time.” - -“Where is the library?” asked Josie, determination in her voice. - -“Well, lady, it air right back yonder--” - -“What is the matter, Uncle Abe?” The question was asked by a pleasant -looking young woman whose likeness to Mr. Theodore Burnett gave Josie -the assurance that she was his sister. She had overheard sounds of an -altercation from the upper hall and leaning over the bannisters spied -Josie. - -“I must see Mr. Burnett immediately,” said the girl. “It is important -and I beg of you to inform him that I am here. I am Miss O’Gorman from -the store.” - -“O-O-h! Are you really?” and Miss Lily Burnett sailed down the stairs -rapidly. “My brother has told us a lot about you and we have been -anxious to meet you. Uncle Abe, you must tell Mr. Teddy immediately -that Miss O’Gorman is here. Please come in, and when you and Brother -Teddy get through your business talk we will be so glad if you will -have tea with us. Now don’t say ‘no.’” - -There was a sweet frankness about Miss Lily Burnett’s voice and manner -that appealed to Josie but she felt that for the time being she must -forego the pleasure of tea with the family of her employer. - -“I am very sorry, but I am too busy to stop with you to-day,” she said. - -“Well then, promise another day!” and Josie promised and was at last -shown into the library where the master of the house and the junior -partner of the firm sat in some dejection, attempting to read but -evidently restless and preoccupied. - -“Miss O’Gorman!” Mr. Theodore exclaimed, jumping up. “I have been -wondering how I could get hold of you. Of course I had your address but -no telephone number. I have wanted very much to have a talk with you -ever since Major Simpson told me he was going to hunt you up. He found -you, did he not? I don’t know how the old fellow happened to catch on -to your being what you are. He is more astute than we thought. Perhaps -calling himself a detective for so many years has finally made him one.” - -Josie began to laugh. - -“He has found out where I live and as far as I can make out he has -sworn my landlady to secrecy in regard to his having tracked me. He has -a mystery up his sleeve and for the life of me I cannot make it out. -But I am not here to discuss Major Simpson and you have not told me why -you wanted to talk to me. First let me ask you if a shoplifter has been -at work again and carried off several yards of exquisite lace and a -gold mesh bag?” - -“How did you find that out? Major Simpson must have had a leakage -somewhere. Ah, perhaps you have seen one of the sales-ladies?” - -“Worse and more of it! I have found the goods in my own pocket.” Josie -produced the stolen articles and laid them on the library table. “It -seems almost too good to be true that my pocket was the one chosen, and -it also convinces me that my father was right when he declared truth to -be stranger than fiction. A real detective tale would never sell with -such a thing as this happening in it.” - -She then recounted in detail the story of how Miss Fauntleroy bought -the paper and then twisting it up angrily returned it to the old -newsie, and how the woman seemed genuinely distressed that she, Josie, -should take the rumpled paper. - -“Of course these two are the ones to watch now--Miss Fauntleroy and the -old beggar woman at your back entrance. Miss Fauntleroy does not live -at the address she gave Burnett & Burnett.” - -“Are you sure? How do you know?” - -“Yes, I am sure, and I know because this afternoon I went out to the -address she gave and there is nothing but a frog pond at that number -on Linden Row, Linden Heights. In fact, there are no houses at all on -Linden Row. It has but recently been put on the market--a half-hearted -attempt at a real estate boom, I fancy, and the houses are all ‘castles -in Spain.’ The question now is: Where does Miss Fauntleroy live and -what connection has she with the beggar at the gate? We must go very -quietly so as not to scare her off. I am a little uneasy now that you -tell me Major Simpson is to cooperate with me.” - -“Ah, but I did not say that! Merely that he seems to be aware of the -fact that you are not just a shop girl. He came to the office in great -excitement a little while after the theft was reported and wanted your -address. He seemed to think that through you he might track the whole -gang, if gang there is, of shoplifters.” - -“That being the case, why should he be so secret about it when once he -found my address? Why should he not wait until I got home and talk the -thing over with me? Why should he persuade Mrs. Leslie, the dear lady -with whom I am boarding, to keep so dark about his having been there? -Why, Mr. Burnett, he has even snooped around my bedroom and peeped in -my bureau drawers.” - -“Surely not, Miss O’Gorman! How do you know?” - -“I know because a little book, of which I am very fond, had been moved.” - -“Taken away?” - -“Oh no, just turned around with the edges out instead of in. I always -put it in the corner of my drawer, turning the back out.” - -Mr. Burnett laughed. “Heaven’s above! What an inventory taker you would -make--or housekeeper for Sherlock Holmes. But, my dear young lady, -why should you think that poor old Sylvester Simpson was guilty of -such--such sacrilege? Could not your nice landlady have done that? Did -he leave finger prints on the book and have you examined it with a -magnifying glass?” - -“No doubt he did and I would have examined it and perhaps photographed -the finger prints had it been necessary, but the deft detective did -worse things than leave finger prints,” answered Josie, good naturedly -accepting her employer’s banter. - -“What could be worse?” - -“His cuff link broke in my drawer,” she said, producing the telltale -bit of gold. “Would you like to see Major Simpson when I supply the -missing link?” - -“I should, above all things. But seriously, what do you make of his -behavior?” - -“What do you?” - -“Answered like an Irishman! You know an Irishman always answers -an unanswerable question by asking another,” laughed Mr. Burnett. -“Frankly, I don’t know; but then, I am a plain merchant and not a young -lady detective. If I had to answer your question off hand I think I -should say that the old man has gone a little crazy and thinks you are -the shoplifter--” - -“Exactly!” cried Josie. “You have hit the nail on the head, Mr. -Burnett, and I give you all credit for solving the mystery of ‘The -Major and the Maiden.’ I find very often in my work that the sane -opinion of a sensible business man who makes no pretense of being able -to unscrew the inscrutable is worth more than all the sleuthing in the -world. I don’t know why I did not think of that myself. Of course he -thinks I am responsible for all thefts past, present and future. That -is the reason he has been following me around so much. And just think, -I thought it was because he knew about my father.” - -Then Josie laughed heartily at her own stupidity, and Mr. Burnett -joined in. At that moment his sister Lily put her head in the library -door and the other sister, May, looked in over Lily’s shoulder and they -laughed, too. Although they hadn’t the slightest idea what it was all -about, they were sure it was a good joke that was bringing forth such -spontaneous merriment from their much admired brother. - -“Now, Brother Teddy, you need not pretend you and Miss O’Gorman are -discussing private business matters if you are laughing like that. -There could not possibly be anything about business that would be so -funny,” declared Lily. “I met Miss O’Gorman in the hall. Now I want May -to meet her and I want both of you to come on in the living room and -have some tea.” - -“Indeed we will,” declared Mr. Burnett. “I have been wanting Miss -O’Gorman to let you call on her ever since she has been here, but -she is such a stickler in a way for business etiquette that she has -refused. Now, Sister Lily, we have her in spite of herself.” - -Josie did not mind at all being had in spite of herself. The day had -been a trying one and it was pleasant to sit by the cheerful grate fire -in the comfortable, homelike living room and have Lily and May serve -the tea while she talked to Mr. Burnett and his charming old mother, -who was a delightfully witty old lady in voluminous skirts and a dainty -lace cap--a veritable “Ol’ Miss.” - -“Now, Miss O’Gorman, I want you to tell the ladies of my family all -about it. They are very remarkable women and know when to keep secrets. -I am sure what you tell them will go no farther. My mother is a great -reader of mystery tales and she will be vastly interested in what you -have to say.” - -So Josie told all the happenings since she had come to Wakely--not -that much had happened except Major Simpson’s dogging of her every -move--until that very day when things had moved fast and furiously. - -“And you actually have the stolen things right here in this house?” -asked the mother. - -“Right here,” said the son, and he went to the library and brought back -the purloined articles. “Of course the ridiculous part of it all is -that Major Simpson thinks Miss O’Gorman is a clever shoplifter instead -of being about the most successful female detective we have anywhere.” - -“Oh please--” blushed Josie. - -“Well, you know you are, at least that is what your Captain Lonsdale -says. I am wondering what old Simp will say when he finds out the goods -have been returned.” - -“Of course he will say that he knew all the time I had the things and I -brought them back because I was afraid of your sending me to jail. By -the way, if I had been a thief it would certainly have been a dramatic -move to bring the things to you. It would have disarmed you completely, -would it not?” - -“I guess it would.” - -“And now I must go,” said Josie. “I am wondering all the time what my -dear friends the Leslies are thinking about me. Mrs. Leslie saw the -lace and gold bag as soon as I did and she expressed her astonishment. -Heavens! Do you think Major Simpson could have informed her of the -theft this afternoon? Of _course_ he did and now Mary and her mother -think I am the guilty party.” - - - - -CHAPTER X - -“THE WATERMELONS HAVE COME” - - -Mr. Burnett would not hear of Josie’s leaving until he had ordered his -car. - -“I’ll take you myself,” he insisted. - -“But suppose Major Simpson sees us,” laughed Josie. - -“Oh, won’t that be delicious?” from May. “Do you fancy he will think -Brother Teddy is shoplifting from himself?” - -“Of course, if he sees me driving around with a bunch of lace and a -gold mesh bag he could come to no other conclusion.” - -“Well! I have been called many things, but never before a bunch of lace -and a gold mesh bag,” said Josie, buttoning her neat sport coat. “Wait, -let me see that there is nothing in my pockets that does not belong to -me, because if I don’t look out I’ll be arrested yet.” - -“Now, my dear,” said Mrs. Burnett, “I am going to make you promise to -come and dine with us very soon. I want to hear some of the many tales -of the criminals you have caught up with. I know you think that is a -strange taste for an old lady like me, but I simply dote on detective -stories and I am sure you know interesting things that don’t get in -books.” - -“Please do! Please do!” chorused the sisters, and Josie promised, -although she had her doubts about the advisability of accepting such an -invitation, certainly not until the shoplifting plot was unraveled. - -Mr. Theodore Burnett’s car was a new one, large and elegant, with -silver mountings, and painted a midnight blue. Josie could not resist -a sly smile at herself when the owner helped her in so carefully. She -wondered what Min and Gertie and Jane would say could they see her -riding around in such luxury. - -“Perhaps you had better let me out at the corner and not take me all -the way to my door,” she suggested. - -“Nonsense!” insisted Mr. Burnett. “I am not accustomed to dumping young -ladies at the corner.” - -As it was a well known fact that Mr. Theodore Burnett was not -accustomed to driving young ladies around at all, and since young -ladies must be driven before they can be dumped, no doubt he was -speaking the truth. Nevertheless, Josie insisted on being dumped, if -not at the corner, at least not in front of the shabby apartment house. -He compromised by bringing the car to a standstill four doors from No. -11. - -Had Josie not been so occupied in bidding Mr. Burnett good bye she -would have seen that Mrs. Leslie was on the stoop of the apartment -house, peering anxiously into the winter twilight. She had seen the -handsome car pass and drive up to the curb and then her little lodger -alight with the courteous assistance of a very good looking gentleman -verging onto middle age. - -As the afternoon wore on Mrs. Leslie’s concern for Josie had outweighed -her suspicions. Suppose she did not come back--what then would happen -to her? She regretted exceedingly that she had permitted herself to be -drawn into Major Simpson’s plot to entrap the young girl. Who could -tell what temptations she had had? She thought of her own Mary. Her -life had been sheltered, her rearing, careful, her training, Christian. -Perhaps Josie O’Gorman had never known a mother’s and father’s care. -Was it the part of a Christian woman with a daughter of her own to try -to catch and bring to justice a poor young thing who trusted her--she -might even say loved her? How much better it would be to warn the girl -and try to reform her than betray her and have her sent to prison where -no doubt she would be taught a lesson but in the teaching might become -a hardened criminal. Certainly Josie was no hardened criminal yet. -Criminal she might be but there was something very kind and sweet about -the poor thing. - -“If only I had not promised Major Simpson!” she said to herself over -and over. “If only I had not told him about the lace and the gold -mesh bag! He is started now and there is no stopping him. It would be -different if Josie was the kind of girl that flirted or ran around with -men. There is nothing like that about her at all. She is so refined, so -circumspect. She may be a kleptomaniac, poor little thing, and not be -able to resist stealing. I have a great mind to go in the house this -minute and phone the Major that I will no longer aid and abet him in -this cruel pursuit of the poor young thing.” - -Mrs. Leslie had come out on the stoop for the third time, hoping -and yet fearing to see Josie returning. Just as she had come to the -conclusion to give her old neighbor and friend an ultimatum concerning -her lodger--since she was so refined and was not the kind of girl -to flirt or go joy riding with strange men--the large blue car came -rolling up the street past No. 11 and stopped a few doors off. - -Meadow was a quiet street, shabby and unpretentious. Few handsome -automobiles passed that way and if they did they seldom stopped. Mrs. -Leslie was attracted by its new and shining splendor and when it came -to a full stop close to the curb and no less a person than her abused -lodger alighted and stood for a moment talking gaily with the handsome, -well dressed owner of the car, Mrs. Leslie’s heart hardened again and -she hurried into the house to inform the Major that the prodigal had -returned. - -“What number? What number?” was all the satisfaction Mrs. Leslie could -get from her new telephone. Of course this was most irritating when she -wanted to get the message over to Major Simpson before Josie should -get in the apartment. The operator was stupid or the line was crossed -or something, at any rate Josie was in the hall before the connection -was made. Then the distracted lady was sure that Major Simpson at the -other end bellowed quite loud enough for Josie to hear him, although -she was all the way across the room from the telephone. - -“Well! Well! This is Sylvester Simpson--Major Simpson of Burnett & -Burnett’s. What is it? Who are you? What do you want?” - -Mrs. Leslie could hardly refrain from calling him an old idiot. If he -had not come from her county and belonged to such a highly respectable -family she would have done so. As it was she merely said: “Hello! -Hello!” all the time trying to remember what she was to say if Josie -got back. She knew it was something connected with picnics, but the -major’s bellowing and stupidity had driven it from her mind. She did -not know why she had connected the cryptic code with picnics--she -couldn’t remember that or anything else. She only knew that Josie -O’Gorman had come driving up in a very handsome blue car and had been -standing chatting very intimately with a handsome stranger when, so far -as she knew, her lodger had no acquaintances in Wakely. Why had the car -not stopped in front of the apartment house? That in itself was shady. -She also knew that she had promised Major Silvester Simpson to let him -know when Josie returned if she ever did return. She was to name no -names but merely say that something that was in some way connected with -picnics had come. She tried to think, but the Major’s impatient “Well! -Well!” at the other and drove all coherency from her thoughts. She must -say something or she was sure the impatient old man would pull his -telephone out by the roots. - -“The watermelons have come!” she gasped. “They just came--the -watermelons!” and then she heard a great spluttering at the other end -of the line and a faint: “Is that you Polly?” - -“Yes sir!” she said, and hung up the receiver. - -“Watermelons! This time of the year?” questioned Josie curiously, and -then realized that something had happened and was still happening. Mrs. -Leslie’s cheeks were burning and her usually tidy hair had escaped from -its net and was standing out in a far from respectable manner. She -looked at Josie with sad, unfriendly eyes, and her mouth trembled as -she said: - -“Good evening!” - -“Good evening!” returned Josie. “I--I hope nothing is the matter, Mrs. -Leslie.” - -“Matter! Nothing that I know of.” But Mrs. Leslie was too honest to -dissemble and suddenly she lost all control of herself and sinking -into a chair, burst into tears. - -“Oh, my dear, my dear!” cried Josie kneeling by her side. “Please, -please, Mrs. Leslie, tell me if anything is the matter. Where is Mary?” - -Mrs. Leslie pointed to the closed bedroom door. - -“Not ill?” - -She shook her head in mute denial. - -“Is it something connected with me--with me and Major Simpson that has -upset you so?” - -The lady did not speak, but a tightening of the hand which Josie held -gave the girl to understand that it was something to do with her and -the old detective that was making her weep. - -“And the watermelons--are they a private dish or am I to have a slice? -Come now, my dear friend, for you are dear friends--both you and -Mary--please tell me what it is all about. I feel you are angry with me -about something and distrust me in some way. I must have a talk with -you and Mary.” - -Mary, whose door was not so tightly closed that she could not hear her -name mentioned, came quickly into the living room. She, too, had been -weeping, but her mother’s wild message concerning watermelons had -brought on a fit of uncontrollable laughter and now she was verging on -hysterics. She tried to speak but could only giggle helplessly. - -Josie looked at mother and daughter with a quizzical expression as much -as to say: “Well what next?” Then she drew Mary to a seat and standing -in the middle of the room she spoke in a tone of patient gentleness and -humility. - -“I feel sure that something has arisen to make you doubt and distrust -me. I am to blame for this because I have been concealing something -from you that no doubt I should have told you long ago, but my -profession is such that it is wiser and safer to keep my own counsel.” - -“Oh--hh!” shuddered Mrs. Leslie. “Don’t tell us anything that you will -regret. You can get away now if you go immediately and wild horses will -not drag from me where you have gone. Indeed, you need not even tell me -where you are going--but go quickly, poor child.” - -“Are you sending me away?” - -“Not sending you, just allowing you to go before it is too late. I may -get into trouble for warning you but I don’t care. I cannot see you put -behind bars.” Mrs. Leslie wept afresh. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -MRS. LESLIE WON TO THE CAUSE - - -“No doubt I deserve it,” said Josie solemnly. - -“Even if you do I cannot bear to think of your being there and, -although it is not quite honorable of me to do so, I am going to assist -you to run away. Honor isn’t everything. A woman must be human first -and a human being could not stand by and see a poor young thing like -you branded as a criminal with a terrible jail sentence staring you in -the face.” - -“But, my dear lady, I have not confessed to being a real criminal--only -not quite honest in that--” - -“But there is no line to draw where honesty is concerned. That is what -you shall have to learn. One is either honest or dishonest--but you are -so young--” - -“But, Mrs. Leslie, what do you and Mary think I have done?” - -“Not me!” cried Mary. “I am sure of you, Josie. I simply _know_ you -have done nothing wrong.” - -“Thank you, Mary! Then what does your mother think I have done?” - -“Think--why, you poor dear child, I know you are a thief--at least a -shoplifter,” blurted out Mrs. Leslie. “Major Simpson has been keeping -his eye on you for weeks and weeks and he has at last rounded you up. -Oh, why do we stand here and talk? You must be leaving before he gets -here. I have telephoned him that you have come back.” - -“Ah--then I am the watermelons,” laughed Josie. - -“Yes, I meant lemons but I got so mixed because I was excited. I knew -it was something people take to picnics and watermelons are good to -take although they are only the shipped Georgia melons we get for the -Fourth of July. All the time it was lemonade I was thinking about. -Anyhow watermelons was nearer to it than sandwiches would have been. I -know you think I am crazy but I’m not.” - -“No, I know very well you are exceedingly sane,” said Josie gently. -“You are simply overwrought and are thinking aloud. But now tell me -what it is. You mean you have telephoned Major Simpson that I have come -back and he will be along soon with the handcuffs?” - -“Oh-h-h! Not that!” - -“Perhaps not,” smiled Josie, “but I think you had better let me make a -clean breast of the whole affair and then we will decide what is to be -done. In the first place, I am not a shop girl at all--” - -“Didn’t I tell you?” Mrs. Leslie said to Mary. - -“Please don’t interrupt, Mother,” begged Mary. - -“But I am a detective brought here from Dorfield by Burnett & Burnett -to find out who has been shoplifting so successfully,” Josie continued. - -“Another detective!” gasped Mrs. Leslie. - -“Yes, although I must say that poor old Major Simpson hardly deserves -to be called one. I have thought it best not to tell anyone what -brought me to Wakely since both Mr. Charles and Mr. Theodore Burnett -were opposed to letting Major Simpson know they had employed someone -over his head, as it were. It seems he has never yet detected a thing -about anybody, and while they do not want to hurt his feelings they -are determined to track the thieves if possible. I was recommended to -the firm as a capable person and was employed by them. We felt I could -accomplish more if I had a job in the store and that is how I came to -tell you that I was a shop girl. I have never liked having to conceal -my real profession from you and Mary but it had to be done. Major -Simpson from the first seemed to have a peculiar interest in me and -I thought it was because he had heard of my father. Perhaps you have -never heard of him, but he was one of the greatest and cleverest of -detectives.” - -“Not Detective O’Gorman?” cried Mrs. Leslie. “Not the man who found -Margaret Carson, the millionaire baby! Not the one who tracked down the -famous counterfeiters at Dempsey’s Mill by hiding in a meal sack for a -whole day and night! Not the one who proved the old maid sister had put -rat poison in the chicken salad at the wedding just to get even with -the young man who was marrying her sister all because one time he had -shot her cat for stealing chickens! Oh, Josie, to think of my having -you right here under my--my ceiling for all these weeks and not knowing -you were Detective O’Gorman’s daughter. Why, my husband and I never -missed a thing he did in the way of detecting crime and we followed -every inch of his work if we could just get hold of it. Of course I -knew he lived in Washington and if you had ever mentioned Washington I -might have guessed, but you see, you never did.” - -“No, I never did,” said Josie, whose eyes were full of tears. How often -she had mentioned her father, expecting him to be known and remembered, -and how often she had been mortified at the ignorance of other persons. -Now, here was this quiet country woman who had not even known how to -punch on an electric light until she came to Wakely to live, yet she -knew all about the great O’Gorman and gave him all honor and praise. - -“Go on, Josie! I did not mean to interrupt, but I just had to. I wish -my dear husband could have met you. He was the one that got me so -interested in detective tales. But go on!” - -“I believe I left off where I realized Major Simpson took an interest -in me. This interest manifested itself in a peculiar way but I did not -realize until this afternoon what the poor old man thought. I was so -sure he was trying to find out O’Gorman methods of detecting that I -went blindly on my way. The fact is, I teased the old fellow. He used -to follow me around the street and I’d keep him guessing and then lose -him. It is a very easy thing to do.” - -“The Sylvester Simpsons are very good people,” murmured Mrs. Leslie, -but Mary gave her a beseeching glance and she desisted from further -interruptions. - -“I have been walking the streets of Wakely a great deal because I -have been determined to find out where the many employees of Burnett -& Burnett’s live, as well as something about their habits. You see, -Mr. Charles Burnett had a suspicion that the shoplifting was done from -the inside. So while Major Simpson was under the impression that I was -playing hide and seek with him I have really been on my job, which did -not stop with closing time at the store. This afternoon I went out to -Linden Heights to track down a young person and found she has given a -fictitious address.” - -“Oh, how exciting!” exclaimed Mrs. Leslie. “Why do you suppose--?” - -“I don’t know but I am going to find out. A whole lot of things have -happened this afternoon that I have to find out about. In the first -place, there was a theft of some priceless lace and a mesh bag--” - -“Oh--h! I forgot that!” cried Mrs. Leslie. “And what were you doing -with those things? That is what has been worrying me sick.” - -“I told you I did not know when you asked me before, and I told you the -truth. Since then a gleam of light has been shed on how I got those -things but it is such a faint gleam that I feel it best not to say -anything more about it until I can see more clearly myself. I am going -to ask you and Mary to trust me a little longer in so far as the lace -and gold bag being found in my pocket is concerned.” - -“Indeed I have always trusted you, Josie,” declared Mary. - -“Well I must say I haven’t,” said Mrs. Leslie, stoutly, “and I’d like -to know now where those things are. Major Simpson will be coming along -here before you know it and I am not willing for him to find them in my -apartment. Where are they, Josie?” - -“They are where they belong--with Mr. Theodore Burnett. I took them -to him the moment I was aware of the fact that they were in my -possession.” - -“Mr. Theodore Burnett! Then was he the man who came home with you, the -one who stopped three doors up?” - -“Yes, that was Mr. Theodore Burnett, the junior member of the firm.” - -“Heavens above! And I took him to be one of your confederates!” - -“So he is, and we happen to be working on an inside job. It was never -my idea to be so secretive about my being a detective, at least so far -as Major Simpson was concerned, but the Burnetts were sure he would not -know how to cooperate with me and that if a clue was found he would -bungle because he is so--so--I might say, old fashioned, though that is -hardly the word because the business of detecting crime is as old as -crime itself, and what new wrinkles have been discovered do not amount -to a row of pins.” - -“There now, it was that kind of talk that made me say you were not -a notion counter girl,” said Mrs. Leslie. “But you will tell Major -Simpson now, surely.” - -“No, not yet! I am afraid he would bungle things. Mr. Burnett and I -have decided to keep him in the dark as to my business until the real -thieves are caught.” - -“Of course if you catch the shoplifters you want the glory of it and -if you took him in on it he might get half,” said Mrs. Leslie. “That’s -human nature.” - -“I don’t care a snap for the glory,” laughed Josie. “It may be human -nature, but it is not mine and it was not my father’s. I know you think -this will sound smug, but honestly and truly the doing of the work is -what interests me and anybody who wants to can walk off with the laurel -wreath. Of course the laborer is worthy of his hire and I want the -hard cash for delivering the goods. Not that I do the work for money -either--that is, I don’t think about the money and of it while I am -doing it. After it is all over it is rather pleasant to deposit a fat -check in the bank.” - -“Yes, I reckon it is, and it takes money to dress as you do,” said Mrs. -Leslie. - -“As I do?” laughed Josie. “Why, Mrs. Leslie, I don’t believe there is a -girl at Burnett & Burnett’s so simply dressed as I am.” - -“Simply but elegantly!” insisted Mrs. Leslie. “I know dress goods when -I see it--and shoes--there is nothing simple about your shoes.” - -“Well, you are right, my dear lady. I do get good material for my -frocks and I do wear good shoes. By the way, what did Major Simpson -think of my shoes?” - -“Your shoes!” and Mrs. Leslie blushed furiously. “What do you mean, -Josie? But I’m not going to lie about it. The Major did go in your -room, but he made me feel it was in the cause of the upholding of the -law that I should take him there. He did not meddle with anything -however--except--” - -“Except my little book in the top drawer,” teased Josie. - -“Yes--” faltered the much embarrassed hostess, “but how did you know -that?” - -“I knew it in the first place because the book was not quite in the -corner and the back turned in instead of out. But if I had not known it -already this would have been proof that someone had been in my drawer.” -Josie produced the broken cuff link. - -“Oh, my dear, I am so mortified that I let that bigoted old man make -such a fool of me,” wailed Mrs. Leslie. “He doesn’t know the first -thing about the detective business, either. And I thought he was so -clever. You see he is the first one I ever knew and he talked so -knowingly. The idea of his leaving a cuff link in the drawer! And to -think of his spending all this time tracking down a detective! Anybody -could see with half an eye that you are as honest as the day is long. -Josie, I am going to do anything you tell me to keep your identity -concealed from old Major Simpson. I don’t care if he does belong to one -of the most respectable families in our county, with his ancestral home -right next to mine--and I don’t care if he did give me a pink parasol -when I was a little girl. He is a poor detective and that is what I am -interested in.” - -“That’s the way to talk,” said Josie, and the girls laughed so merrily -that Mrs. Leslie joined in. “But what line of subterfuge are we to -decide on? It is really very important to keep the poor man fooled for -a few days yet.” - -“I’ll phone him again and tell him the watermelons are to be with me -for some time--I mean lemons--and he need have no fear of losing them.” - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -A BOARDING HOUSE HERO - - -When Major Simpson received the frantic message from Mrs. Leslie -informing him the watermelons had come, for a moment he stood aghast, -not knowing at all what she meant. Slowly a wary smile overspread his -rotund countenance and he exclaimed: - -“By golly! There’s a woman for you! I’ll bet my gold-headed cane -that somebody had caught on to the lemons and she realized I would -have intelligence enough to grasp her meaning if she substituted -watermelons. Of course--of course--picnics back in the grove behind -the church--ice cold watermelons--ice cold lemonade. Even had she said -fried chicken I should have been wise. Well, well! I must not neglect -my digestion for this little shoplifter. Since she is safe in the hands -of my good friend Polly Bainbridge I can eat my dinner in peace. I -wonder whether or not the stolen goods are still on the wretch. I fancy -not, but once we get our clutches on her she will divulge where she -has hidden the loot.” - -Major Simpson was star boarder in the very select house run by Mrs. -Celeste White. The place was called “Maison Blanche”. Mrs. White seemed -to think that her name Celeste gave her sufficient reason for assuming -a French air. For that reason at Maison Blanche the bill of fare was -always the menu. The baking dishes were casseroles, the napkins, -serviettes. She made desperate efforts to have old Aunt Maria called -the chef but that worthy person objected. - -“No’m! I ain’t no shelf an’ I ain’t gonter be laid on none fer many a -day yit. I’m a plain cook as fer as what you call me is consarned but -I’m plain an’ fancy as fer as cookin’ is consarned. An’ what I cook air -a gonter be called by the right name s’long as it air in my kitchen. -When it gits as fer as the precinct of the butler’s pantry it kin -begin ter change its name an’ not befo’. I cooks maccaroni an’ cheese -in a bakin’ dish but Miss White she make a pass over it an’ by the -time the boa’ders gits settled in they seats my maccaroni an’ cheese -air fergetti O’ Gratty Ann. I don’t know who this here Gratty Ann is -but she sho mus’ a been a great one fer the eatin’s since she got so -many things named after her. They even got pertatters named her name -only Miss White, she calls ’em pums. This Gratty Ann an’ that there -Cassy Roll got they patent hitched on ter mos’ eve’y thing these days. -In ol’ times Sally Lum an’ Brown Betty wa’ the onlies oomans what got -they names in the cook book an’ now them two has ter take a back seat. -The times air sho quare. Miss White she don’t even let cawfy be plain -cawfy, that is when they dishes it up in them little doll baby cups, -but she got ter name it after some low flung pusson called Demmy Task. -I don’t know who Demmy Task is but she mus’ be a stingy one.” - -In the kitchen Aunt Maria ruled supreme, while in the parlor Major -Simpson was monarch of all he surveyed--from the great Mrs. Celeste -White herself down to the humble little Miss Willie Watts who rented -Mrs. White’s attic room which she pleased to call a studio. Here Miss -Willie made crayon portraits of the living and the dead for a living, -and for pleasure she painted fancy pictures illustrating striking bits -in mythology as well as her favorite songs. These pictures painted -merely for the love of what the poor little woman called “her art” she -never sold, because nobody ever bought them. But she was very generous -with them at Christmas and on birthdays and weddings. According to Miss -Willie Watts everything must be decorated--no space go to waste. Art -abhorred a bare space as much as Nature did a vacuum. - -Major Simpson was the recipient of several of Miss Willie’s efforts. -“The Lovers’ Tryst,” painted in a wooden mixing bowl, was touching -indeed. Of course the poor man never did know what he was expected to -do with a wooden bowl so he did nothing with it--just had it around. -The small rolling pin tastefully decorated in new born cupids and -suspended by silken cords and tassels attached to the handles, he -guessed was meant for a cravat holder and so the vivid pink cupids -peeped out from behind the old gentleman’s sober ties, constantly -reminding him that the fool that the cynics tell us is born every -minute may also be a lover. - -On this evening Major Simpson was in his glory. The paying lady guests -at Maison Blanche were gathered together in the parlor, listening in -wrapt admiration while the star boarder recounted with becoming modesty -the almost superhuman intelligence he had exercised in tracking down -the desperate criminal, little Josie O’Gorman. Of course he named no -names for fear that by some means the terrible truth might be conveyed -to his victim and she might escape. - -“How thrilling!” trilled a sweet young thing of some forty summers. -“Oh, Major, you are wonderfully clever! I wish I might see you work. -How will you proceed now? Will you swear out a warrant and go and -arrest the wicked creature?” - -“No, no, not yet! It is most important to round up all of the girl’s -confederates. In the mean time she is safe in the apartment of my -friend, the widow from my county--” - -“A widow!” exclaimed Miss Willie Watts. “So she is a widow?” - -Miss Willie was a contented little woman and envied no woman anything -except a dead husband. In her heart she had always longed to be a -widow. Her imagination could not picture for her a live husband but she -could easily see herself in a widow’s ruche with a long crepe veil. Her -imagination even carved a name on the tombstone marking the grave over -which she mourned so piteously. It was not always the same name, for -Miss Willie allowed herself to be fickle in regard to her imaginary -dead husbands; but for many months now she had thought how blissful it -would be to be called the Widow Simpson and how handsome the name Major -Sylvester Simpson would look on an imposing marble shaft--“beloved -husband of Willie Watts”--or should it be Wilhelmina? Willie would look -so boyish on a tombstone. - -Had Major Simpson realized the little artist was regarding him in “that -bony light” no doubt he would have refused to let his cravats hang over -the cupid covered rolling pin, but he merely counted her as one of the -many lovely ladies who did him homage at the Maison Blanche, listening -to his stories and applauding his cleverness. - -“Burnett & Burnett could hardly get along without you,” murmured Miss -Willie, thinking of herself as cruel even to imagine the efficient -righthand man of the department store as carved on a tombstone. - -“Well, they won’t have to. I could retire to-morrow if I chose, but the -work of a detective is so engrossing that once one has engaged in it, -it is impossible to relinquish it.” - -“Have you always been one?” asked the sweet young thing. - -“Not officially--but at heart, always.” - -“I wonder you did not get in Government Secret Service. You would have -been invaluable,” cooed one of the ladies. - -“Ahem! Yes, but Burnett & Burnett needed me.” - -“Of course--but how noble of you to stay in Wakely when the logical -place for you to be was Washington,” declared Miss Willie. Then she -asked vaguely: “Do they bury Secret Service agents in Arlington?” -Nobody knew, so nobody answered, and Miss Willie blushed furiously, -fearing that Major Simpson might guess the foolish thing that was in -her mind when she asked the seemingly inconsequent question. Miss -Willie had a way of breaking into a conversation following her own -train of thought rather than the subject under discussion, and the -guests at Maison Blanche were accustomed to her peculiarity and paid -little attention to it. One solemn looking old lady, who said little -but missed nothing, gave a deep gurgling chuckle. This old lady’s -name was Mrs. Trescott. She had occupied a small back bedroom at Mrs. -Celeste Waite’s for as many years as Major Simpson had occupied the -large front one. - -Mrs. Trescott’s chuckle was fortunately drowned by the dinner gong. -The boarders trooped in and fell on the _purree de pois_ with the same -gusto they would have employed had it been called plain pea soup. As -soon as the first pangs of hunger were satisfied the conversation of -the parlor was resumed. - -“But, Major Simpson, you haven’t told us what this naughty girl looks -like,” said one of the ladies. “Of course she is beautiful and charming -and very chic.” - -“No, I don’t think she is any of these things,” said the Major. “She -is quite insignificant looking and her clothes are not of the latest -style, though they are of very rich material. Her shoes are quite good -and she is intellectual and well educated; speaks French with a good -accent and reads Greek. Those high-brow crooks are the worst of all and -the hardest to catch.” - -“_Boeuf a la mode_ to-day,” said Mrs. White by way of informing the -assembled company that French with an accent was eaten at her table if -not spoken. And one of the young men at the far end of the room said in -a hoarse whisper: - -“That means biled beef.” But Mrs. Celeste White never heard anything -she did not want to hear. - -There were three persons at Maison Blanche that might have been called -thorns in the flesh or flies in the amber. They were two frivolous -young men and one young woman who utterly refused to play the game of -its being a French _pension_ and who openly made game of Major Simpson, -calling him Sherlocko and asking him where Dr. Watsonia was. They had -all their fun to themselves, however, as the other inmates loved to -look upon their dinner as table d’hote and were sure that Major Simpson -in flesh and blood was much cleverer than Conan Doyle’s fictitious -detective. Mrs. Trescott was the only person who derived any amusement -from the bad manners of the three young persons and she could not help -giving her famous gurgling chuckle when any of their witty remarks -touched her risibles. - -“Did you say pois meant cat?” one of the men asked. - -“No, peas! Why?” from the girl. - -“Oh, I thought it must mean cat or maybe kitten because it’s called -purry and it sure does purr as it is taken in out of the cold. Listen!” - -Everybody involuntarily stopped eating and listened except one deaf old -lady who was drinking her pea soup with such gusto that the noise she -made did sound ridiculously like the purring of a cat. - -Mrs. Trescott chuckled and the three naughty ones giggled. - -“Oh, Mrs. White, you should hear the thrilling things Major Simpson has -been telling us about a wicked shoplifter at Burnett & Burnett’s,” said -one of the ladies as the soup dishes were removed and there was a lull -in the business of eating. - -“Shoplifter?” asked one of the young men known as Jimmy Blaine. Jimmy -was a cub reporter on a morning paper and his life was lived with his -ear cocked for news. “Do tell us about it Sher--Major Simpson.” - -The Major, forgetting all about Jimmy’s profession and glad of the -chance to entertain a new audience, one that had heretofore been a -scoffing one, plunged again into the tale of how he had run down Josie -O’Gorman to her lair. He waxed eloquent over the account of Mrs. Leslie -and her doughnuts and coffee, even mentioning the pink parasol he had -given that lady in her childhood. - -“And now all we have to do is round up the whole gang through this slip -of a girl. She thinks she is clever but she is no match for Sylvester -Simpson.” The Major sat back and beamed on his listeners, visibly -swelling with pride. - -“Hope he don’t bust on me,” Jimmy’s side partner, Kit Williams, -whispered to the naughty young woman who was always ready to giggle. - -“Tell us the name of this awful young person,” begged Jimmy. - -“Oh no, young man! When you get to be as old as I am and as experienced -you will realize that one mustn’t tell names and tales too.” - -At this juncture Aunt Maria poked her head in the dining room door and -announced: - -“Miss Celeste, Major Simpson’s phone air a ringin’ lak sompen wa’ on -fiah. I’d go up an’ answer it myse’f if it would do any good--but when -folks wants Major Simpson they wants him an’ I reckon they couldn’t use -no substerchute.” - -“Ah, no doubt a development!” said the Major as he hurried to his room -to quiet the persistent ringing of the telephone bell. - -He returned before the next course of the table d’hote was served. -His genial pink face was beaming and like Kilmansegg, father of the -immortal one of the golden leg: - - “Seem’d washing his hands with invisible soap - In imperceptible water.” - -“Just as I said--a development,” he declared. “It was Mr. Theodore -Burnett on the telephone. He informs me that the articles, purloined -from his establishment this forenoon, have been returned.” - -“Oh, how thrilling! Did he say by whom?” asked the coy one. - -“That was not necessary. I did not even ask him who returned them. I -knew.” - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -JIMMY BLAINE GETS A SCOOP - - -There were two morning newspapers in Wakely; one pink and one yellow. -On week mornings half of the town read the pink journal and the other -half the yellow one. On Sunday mornings the whole town read both. Jimmy -Blaine worked for the yellow one. - -It was Jimmy Blaine’s regular business to go out on any consignment -the powers that be might send him. It was his irregular business to -make news if there was no news, thereby adding to his fame and bulging -out his weekly pay envelope. While the Major was telling his tale Mrs. -Trescott was the only one to notice how shiny Jimmy’s eyes were and how -quick and almost feverish was his breathing. Before the last course was -served Jimmy jumped from his seat. - -“’S’cuse me, but I must be a-hustling. No, Miss Celeste, no _souffle -aux pruneaux_ for me this evening,” in answer to the hostess’s proffer -of prune whip. “S’long everybody! See you in the morning.” Jimmy was -gone. - -Several chuckles bubbled up from the depths of Mrs. Trescott’s satin -bodice. That evening, when Mrs. Trescott made her usual weekly -pilgrimage to the kitchen to speak to Aunt Maria and slip her the -customary Saturday night tip she gave her an extra five cents, -commissioning her to purchase the Sunday morning yellow journal for her. - -“Moughty ’stravagant Mis’ Trescott when they’s allus pufectly good -Sunday papers a goin’ ter waste ’roun’ here. All you is got ter do is -jes’ wait a while. Major Simpson has one, an’ Miss Celeste has one an’ -Mr. Jimmy Blaine is mo’n apt ter have two or three. I allus say ’taint -no trouble ter start Monday mornin’ fiah at this here Mason Bluemange. -If you want ter save yo’ nickel I’ll see that you gits the very fust -paper that anybody gits through with.” - -“That’s very kind, Maria, but I want one all to myself to-morrow -morning, and want it before anybody has pawed over it and mixed it up. -I have an idea there will be something of especial interest to me.” - -Mrs. Trescott was right. Jimmy Blaine had not foregone the pleasures -of prune whip for nothing. He had rushed pell mell to the office and -frantically pounded out on an extra typewriter the whole story of Major -Simpson and the shoplifter. He had named no names, thereby carefully -sidestepping any chance for a libel suit, but he had so accurately -described Burnett & Burnett’s that the whole of Wakely could but guess -the department store mentioned in the story. The stage setting was -realistic, the local color perfect, but the young journalist had let -his fancy run riot where description of characters were concerned. - -Mrs. Trescott received her private Sunday morning newspaper, literally -damp from the press. Aunt Maria was what she called “an early stirrer”, -and the first newsboy that shouted his wares in the neighborhood of -Maison Blanche was nabbed and made to deliver by the intrepid old cook, -who patiently climbed the two flights of steps to Mrs. Trescott’s -third-floor-back hall bedroom and poked the paper in her door. - -“Here you am, Mis Trescott, an’ a cup er cawfy ter tide you over come -brekfus time. You mus’ be ’spectin’ of some funeral notice ter make you -so besirous of a private paper.” - -Aunt Maria well knew that Mrs. Trescott had to watch her pennies very -closely and the extravagance of five cents spent for first peep at a -newspaper could mean little short of a death and a funeral. - -“Perhaps!” chuckled the lady, “but I’ll come read the news to you after -while, Maria. I am more than obliged to you for your kindness. No doubt -the coffee will help me bear up,” and then the old lady gave another -deep soul-satisfying gurgle as she unfolded the damp newspaper and ran -her eyes eagerly over the news columns. - -There it was, just as she knew it would be, but better, so much better! - -“Oh, the rascal, the young rascal! He has made a romance of that old -fool Major’s finding the widow from his own part of the country and her -helping him to track the criminal. He even has in the doughnuts and -coffee and the pink parasol.” - -It might be said that Mrs. Trescott stopped chuckling and chortled. -What difference did it make if one was poor and old and condemned to -spend one’s days in a third-floor-back hall bedroom if one had a sense -of humor equal to Mrs. Trescott’s. Her humor was the type that needed -no second person with whom to enjoy the ridiculousnesses of life. Her -solemn countenance gave no inkling to the outside world of the riot of -fun going on within. The gurgling laughter that sought an outlet was to -the uninitiated no more mirthful than the bubble of air arising from -an old submerged mud turtle, appearing on the surface of the water and -breaking. - -“I’d like to hear what the Burnetts have to say this morning,” she -gasped. “Oh, that will be unprintable I am sure, but our Jimmy Blaine -could make copy of it nevertheless. And the little shoplifter--no doubt -she is happy at being put in the paper as beautiful beyond compare, -with a dark mysterious past that tugs against her better nature--but -the better nature prevails and she returns the stolen goods. I wonder -Jimmy did not announce an engagement between her and Mr. Theodore -Burnett. I think I’ll suggest it to him. A suggestion is all that is -necessary to our Jimmy. Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy!” - -In the mean time Jimmy was sleeping the sleep of a cub reporter happy -over a scoop and the fact that he had cleared a neat little sum on the -extra columns of space he had filled so successfully. Kit Williams, -his friend and room mate, had seized on the early edition Jimmie had -brought home with him and his mirth was loud and lusty over what Jimmy -had done to the Major. - -“Gee. Ain’t he the kid?” he cried. “I could kiss him where he sleeps if -he wasn’t so unshaved.” - -“You try it,” muttered Jimmy sleepily, having come to life just enough -to hear Kit’s ravings. “You try it and you’ll never shave again.” He -then turned over and pulled the covers over his tousled head, hoping -to be lost to the world until dinner time, breakfast offering no -inducements to one who had been up all night making news for the greedy -public. - -Miss Willie Watts was greatly excited over the article. It seemed -to her very astonishing that the “paper” should know so much about -something that had only just happened. At first she did not connect -Jimmy Blaine with the story but when she did all she could say was: - -“But how did he know so much about the appearance of the poor wicked -shoplifter when Major Simpson did not tell him any more than he did me? -And how did he know the widow was handsome and dashing, the one who -made the doughnuts and coffee? Major Simpson never said so in so many -words. Ah me! All widows are handsome and dashing, it seems. I wonder -if this won’t make the poor Major sick. I hope he won’t die--” and then -she began dreaming of his tombstone and how it would look: - -“Major Sylvester Simpson, beloved husband of Wilhelmina--” etc. - -Mrs. Celeste White read the story and thought Jimmy was pretty clever -but wished he had mentioned that the doughty hero lived at Maison -Blanche. - -“A very good chance for some free advertising and I might just as well -have had it,” she grumbled. “Young people seem never to think of such -things.” - -The Major read the whole paper before he came to the part of the -magazine section which carried his story. It was his custom to have -breakfast in his room on Sunday morning so that he might take his ease -before making the elaborate toilet he felt to be necessary for one -whose duty and pleasure it was to pass the plate in church. - -“What’s this? What’s this?” he cried, glaring excitedly at -Jimmy’s lurid headlines. “Story of Seductive Shoplifter--dashing -widow--doughnuts and coffee--pink parasol--reunited after years of sad -separation--Ahem--handsome detective--Tracked to her lair shop girl -returns purloined articles! All will be forgiven and beautiful maiden -will continue her labor at large department store so popular in the -city of Wakely. Of course her identity will remain a secret--no person -but the wily detective and the generous employer being aware of her -identity.” The poor man groaned aloud and let his second cup of coffee -get chilled. - -“Who, who can have done this? Ah--that wretched Jimmy Blaine! I forgot -he was connected with the press. This vile sheet has always disgusted -me. I never intend to read it again,” and then the old gentleman -settled himself to con every word of Jimmy’s scoop. He found it rather -pleasant to be written up as handsome and gallant, and the romance -between himself and the Mrs. Leslie hinted at in the article was on the -whole quite gratifying. - -“But the Burnetts! What will they think?” While no names were mentioned -there could be little doubt of the identity of the persons in the story. - -“Let them think what they choose,” was Major Simpson’s final decision. -“It is not for me, Sylvester Simpson, to account to the young Burnetts -for my method of tracking criminals.” And then he proceeded to justify -himself for having talked too freely before a cub reporter and even -persuaded himself that the publicity given the shoplifting episode was -a stroke of finesse that only a master mind, such as his, would have -been capable of originating. - -“I can manage Charles,” he said to himself, “but I am not so sure of -Theodore. He is an opinionated youngster.” - -In the mean time the “opinionated youngster” was doubled up with -laughter over the magazine section of the Sunday paper. - -“Just when we thought we could put our hands on the criminals! Oh, -Major Simpson, Major Simpson, what a legacy our father and grandfather -left us in your portly person! And what will the little O’Gorman say to -this?” - -What the little O’Gorman thought we may never know, but what she said -was: - -“Oh, me, oh, my! As my father used to say; ‘The best laid schemes of -mice and men gang aft aglee.’” - -She then betook herself to the quiet and peace of her own little -bedroom, there to work out a plan and incidentally to read a few pages -in her book of books, hoping her clever father might have left some -words of wisdom bearing more directly on misplaced publicity than on -the schemes of mice and men. - -Mrs. Leslie’s indignation knew no bounds when she read what the -newspaper said about her. - -“Dashing widow indeed! I never dashed in my life.” - -“And certainly you never widded,” said Mary, trying not to laugh. “But, -dearest, you should be proud that your coffee and doughnuts got into -print, although anonymously. After all, nobody will know whose they -were unless you tell them.” - -“You may be sure I’ll not do that. But one thing I am going to tell if -I have to do it with my dying breath: I shall tell Sylvester Simpson -that he is a pompous old idiot.” - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -THE QUARREL NEXT DOOR - - -Josie was right; the song of the frogs meant spring was on the way--in -the air--in the ground--in one’s bones. The Leslies’ apartment was hot, -hot to suffocation. The janitor, following in the footsteps of most -janitors, had made up an extra hot fire in the furnace because it was -Sunday and because it was a warm Sunday. When Josie sought the quiet of -her own room to escape the reiterated wailings of Mrs. Leslie and to -read her precious little book, she found the atmosphere oppressively -heavy. To escape it she raised her window and leaned far out, drinking -deep of the soft spring air. The little back yard was showing signs -of coming to life. A brave little daffodil had poked a green nose up -through the black earth and a foolish peach tree actually had a few -precocious buds on one of its slender branches. - -“They’ll be nipped and deserve to be,” thought Josie. “But I reckon -they can’t help it any more than I can resist almost falling out of -the window in search of air.” - -Someone else was evidently of the same mind, as a window next to the -one from which Josie was leaning was raised with some vehemence and an -impatient voice, strangely familiar to Josie, exclaimed: - -“Gee, but it’s hot in this hole! I hate to think of summer’s coming.” - -“And I--ah, how I long for warmth--” drawled a woman’s voice with a -foreign accent. - -Josie decided it was the Kambourians--mother and son. Then a -goodnatured growl from the interior of the room gave evidence that Papa -Kambourian was not far off. - -“_Nom de Dieu_--close the window, Roy! Do not you understand that Mamma -and I have air enough during the week days to last us over the blessed -Sabbath. That is the worst of these United States and all who happen to -be born here as were you, _mon bon enfant_--air always air!” - -“And I! How about me being shut up in a shop all week with a bunch of -silly girls, working like a dog--and when I do pull off a deal to have -Mamma fall down on her part? I can’t get over it--losing the things.” - -“Now, now, boy!” and the goodnatured growl bordered on anger. “Let -Mamma be! It was unavoidable. Has she not already wept oceans of tears? -What are a few yards of wretched lace and a bit bauble of a gold bag -to poor Mamma’s feelings? Let be, _mon fils_, and try again. A few -more hauls and we will have enough to set up a small shop in the great -metropolis.” - -“Not for me! I’m through I tell you--through for good and all. I’m -sick of the whole wretched business. You and Mamma can keep on being -foreigners all you want but I’m an American boy--almost a man--and I -want to pull loose. I could make as much money walking straight as I do -crooked.” His voice rose angrily and Josie felt that the boy was on the -verge of tears in spite of his assertion that he was almost a man. - -“Shut the window!” roared the father. “Such foolish babble is enough to -start the whole neighborhood talking!” - -“Now, now!” soothed the woman’s voice. “Don’t you and Papa quarrel. -I know my little Roy will not what you call pull out yet and leave -poor Mamma before she gets enough pretty things to start a little -_boutique_. Shut the window like a gentle boy because the air may make -Papa sick.” - -“How can air make one sick who sits all day on a sidewalk?” - -“And now you reproach poor Papa and Mamma because they sit all day -and sell the pencils and shoe strings and paperrs,” whined the woman, -though it was easy to grasp that the whine in her voice was pure -burlesque. “Was I made for such a life? No, I tell you, nevaire!” - -At this juncture the window was closed with a vigorous slam and the -eavesdropper heard no more. She had heard quite enough however to set -her steady little heart a thumping. - -“I am almost as big an idiot as my worthy brother in arms, Major -Simpson,” Josie took herself to task. “Anybody with a grain of sense -would have known all along what I had to open a window to find out. -Thank goodness for the over zealous janitor. I’ll give him a generous -tip to-morrow. But mercy on us, how carefully I must go now. I can -hardly trust myself not to burst in on the Leslies and tell them the -whole thing. One thing I know, I must call in help from the police -department, as much as I hate to get any clumsy folks mixed up in -this. I know what I’ll do--” She made a feverish dive for her hat and -jacket, and grabbing up her gloves rushed through the living room, -saying in passing: - -“Expect me back when you see me but know that I am not running off for -more than an hour or so.” - -“There now!” gasped Mrs. Leslie. “What a strange girl she is after all. -What do you think is the matter, Mary?” - -“I think she has a clue and is following it up. All I am wondering is -where she got it in such a short time and if she will tell us all about -it later on. It is certainly interesting to have a person like Josie to -rent a room from us, isn’t it Mother?” - -“I should say so; but I wish she wouldn’t be so sudden,” sighed Mrs. -Leslie. “I think she ought to tell me what her clue is because I am -sure I could help her.” - -Mary smiled. She was not so sure. Up to the present her mother had -been more of a hinderance than a help to their little lodger. As for -suddenness; nobody could have been more sudden than that lady in -accepting without question the opinion of old Major Simpson merely -because he had come from her county and had presented her with a pink -parasol when she was quite a tiny girl. - -To a clever girl like Josie, it was an easy matter to find out the -name of the reporter on the yellow journal who had spread himself so -lavishly on the shoplifting story. First to the newspaper office where, -it being a morning paper, the business of the day had not begun. The -office was open, however, and a janitor was lazily sweeping the floor -and grumbling because the one who took care of a daily newspaper office -had no Sunday to speak of. The man at a desk agreed with him as did -also the telephone girl whose business it was to handle the private -switchboard. - -“May I speak with the city editor?” Josie asked meekly. - -“Not in yet!” growled the man at the desk. “Anything I can do?” - -“Oh, please, if you will be so kind--I want the name and address of the -reporter who had the shoplifting story in the paper this morning.” - -“Whatcher want with it? It’s against the policy of the paper to divulge -names and addresses. The management holds itself responsible for all -stories published in its columns and the management has not come down -yet.” - -“I merely wanted to give the man a chance on another scoop, but since -you are evidently not desirous of scoops I’ll look up the other paper.” - -“How’s that? Scoop? Give it to me! I’ll get hold of Jimmy Blaine in a -minute. The truth of the matter is, young lady, I am the management -but it’s policy to keep it dark when anybody is on the war path. I was -afraid you were one of the wronged ladies in Jimmy’s story--but I might -have known you weren’t.” - -“Well, if you can get hold of this Jimmy I’d be very much obliged.” - -“What is the nature of your story? Anything like the one this morning?” - -“No, this one is a true story. There is mighty little that is true -in the scoop of the morning except perhaps the pink parasol and the -doughnuts. Would it be against the policy of the paper for you to -divulge just what part of the management you are?” - -“Ahem! I am part owner and managing editor.” - -“Then you’ll do, but please get this Jimmy here as fast as you can so I -can tell the tale to both of you at once and save time and breath.” - -Jimmy Blaine was forced to uncover his head and listen to his room -mate. - -“Boss wants you and wants you in a hurry. He says never mind dolling -up, but just come along. He’s on the phone now and Miss Celeste says it -must be important because he sounds so brisk.” Thus spake Kit Williams, -going through the operation on sodden Jimmy known as “cold pigging”, -that is, applying a wet sponge to a sleeper’s face. - -“Don’t hide! Get up and go to the phone,” insisted Kit as Jimmy -snuggled down in the bed clothes and again covered his tousled head. - -“Aw gee! Have a heart, cantcher? Don’t go joking me, Kit, that’s a good -boy.” - -“Well then, lose your job if you want to. What’s it to me? You blooming -idiot, didn’t you hear me say that the boss himself is hollerin’ for -you. I reckon he’s got a mouthfull to say about that lurid tale you -pulled off in this morning’s paper.” - -“He saw it before it went in,” growled Jimmy. “If there is any trouble -it is up to him. Ain’t he the management?” - -“I thought that would wake you up. Now get up and put on your dressing -gown--here it is--here are your slippers. Never mind your boudoir cap, -just slip along to the phone.” - -Jimmy meekly obeyed. There was no use in grumbling when one’s boss was -on the line. - -“Hello!” he said in a voice as sweet as honey. - -“Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Be right down. Don’t let her get away.” - -“Breakfast? No sir! What’s breakfast! Never eat on Sunday, that is, -breakfast. Be down in a jiffy.” - -It was a wide awake Jimmy who, after turning on a cold shower, tore -back to his room and began to throw on his clothes like a lightning -change vaudeville artist. - -“So long, Kit, old fellow. Something big is up but I don’t know what. -It’s got something to do with Sherlocko Simpson, I think, but I’ll see -you later,” and the youngster was out on the street and running for a -trolley in less time than it would have taken the fire department to -answer an alarm. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -JOSIE SETS A TRAP - - -Jimmy Blaine did not now just what he was expecting but he knew it -was not a quiet, business-like young person like Josie who showed -no shyness and at the same time no brazenness, but with the utmost -composure stated the case and put it up to the management whether -or not it was worth while to pursue the scoop unearthed by the cub -reporter. As soon as Jimmy breezed in, all on fire for more sensational -news, Mr. Cox introduced him to the visitor. Josie gave him a boyish -handshake and then plunged into the matter in hand. - -“In the first place I am a detective, Josie O’Gorman from Washington -and late of Dorfield. My father--” - -“Not the O’Gorman!” from Mr. Cox. - -“Yes,” beamed Josie. “I am here with Burnett & Burnett to catch the -shoplifters that have been busy lately.” - -Jimmy surreptitiously produced a pencil and endeavored to get hold of a -linen cuff, but Josie stopped him: - -“Please, Mr. Blaine, none of this is for publication as yet. You can -get the whole story in good time and it will be a good one I am sure. I -have come to the newspaper for help because in my experience the live -wires are on newspapers and not on the police force. I cannot say for -sure that the police of Wakely would bungle, but I can say that the -police of Dorfield would and have. My father believed in the press as a -great detective power and I have had more help from a young newspaper -man in Dorfield than all the police; in spite of the fact that Chief -Lonsdale of Dorfield is my very dear friend. But this young Dulaney--” - -“Not Bob Dulaney of the --th Regiment?” cried Jimmy. - -“Yes--Bob Dulaney!” - -“Gee! This is great! Shake again!” cried Jimmy. “I’ve spent many a -night lying in the mud near Bob, over there.” - -“Then you know Danny Dexter, too?” - -“Know him? Know him like a book! Why Danny was my Father Confessor. -Many a time he’s told me what’s what. You see, I was the kid of the -regiment and some of the fellows seemed to think it was up to them to -make me walk chalk. I walked it all right.” - -“We’ve no doubt you did,” twinkled Mr. Cox. - -“Well, Danny Dexter married my best friend; but that’s another story -and we’d better get back to business. Please let me say that I’m glad -I came to the newspaper for cooperation as I’m pretty sure a friend of -Bob Dulaney and Danny Dexter is going to be on the job and deliver the -goods,” said Josie. - -Jimmy Blaine grinned happily, proud that his boss should hear him -praised through his friends. - -Josie plunged into a recital of the Kambourians and how she had been -mystified by them from the moment she saw them on the street that first -Sunday in Wakely. She told of the baffling likeness the youth had to -someone she had seen before; of her finding board in the same apartment -house with them, by chance as it were; of Miss Mary Leslie’s encounter -with a beggar in the hallway and of her identification of this beggar -as the man whose habit it was to sit all day at the front entrance of -Burnett & Burnett’s. She then touched on Major Simpson’s laughable -mistake concerning her own character. - -“He thinks I am the shoplifter and has had me under surveillance ever -since I have been employed by his firm. I only grasped this fact -yesterday. I knew he was following me around but I was conceited enough -to fancy it was my methods that interested him. I thought maybe he knew -I was my father’s daughter and was trying to learn something.” - -Jimmy gasped: - -“Then you are the one he thinks he has trapped.” - -“The same! Thank you for making me such an irresistible vamp.” - -“What! What! Is your story not true?” Mr. Cox looked both alarmed and -irritated. - -“It’s practically what old Simpson told right out at the boarding house -table. Of course I kind of--er--er--embellished it a little, but the -story is almost as he gave it--doughnuts and coffee and all.” - -“It is what Major Simpson thinks is true, but suppose I go on with -my tale. I am sure Mr. Blaine wrote the matter up quite correctly -according to newspaper etiquette--certainly there is no handle -for legal trouble,” soothed Josie. “If I don’t mind being called -a beautiful criminal I am sure Mrs. Leslie should not mind being -published as a fascinating widow. Anyhow, no names were used, so what’s -the difference?” - -“Perhaps you are right,” said Mr. Cox, smoothing out his troubled brow. -“Pray proceed. Your story is most interesting.” - -“Please tell us--did you return the goods to Mr. Burnett?” asked Jimmy. - -Then Josie told of the twisted newspaper and her discovery of the lace -and gold mesh bag and her taking the articles to Mr. Burnett. She also -told of having tried to locate the haughty Miss Fauntleroy. - -“And now--to sum up: Miss Fauntleroy is a fake and wishes to conceal -her address. The newspaper I bought from the old woman who sits at the -rear entrance of Burnett & Burnett’s had passed through the hands of -Miss Fauntleroy and she put the stolen goods in the paper and twisted -it up and returned it to the old woman.” - -“Golly!” was all Jimmy could say. “And this Miss Fauntleroy?” - -“It came to me all of a heap this very day that it was she to whom the -young Kambourian had the haunting likeness. I had seen her in the -store and been rather interested in her because she seemed different -from the other employees. She is evidently the daughter of the house -and the old beggar is none other than the mother, Madame Kambourian. -The father begs at the front door, the mother at the back, and the -daughter takes what suits her fancy and deposits it now with Mamma and -now with Papa.” - -“But you said this Madame Kambourian was handsome,” objected Mr. Cox. -“Handsome and not at all old--hardly old enough to be the mother of the -youth.” - -“Yes, but age is easier to assume than youth. She had on a clever -make-up. I wonder how much she takes in each day, selling papers and -never having the change.” Then Josie proceeded to tell all that she -had overheard through the open window, and how this was made possible -because of the janitor’s having been too lavish with the owner’s coal. - -“Now we must round up the whole bunch. The boy is mixed up in it -somehow, though he is still a mystery to me. I could not gather just -exactly what he does to increase the family income but I am sure it is -something of which he is not proud. I feel rather sorry for the boy -because I am sure he’d like to cut the whole bunch and be honest. The -entire family is interesting to me. The man and woman seem so fond of -each other and so considerate. I’ll give you my word they are much more -loving than many married couples one sees.” - -“You have not seen this Miss Fauntleroy there, have you?” asked Mr. -Cox. “You are not really sure that she belongs there.” - -“Not so sure that I could swear to it in a court of justice, but so -sure that I could safely say I’d eat my hat if she is not,” laughed -Josie. “I think she must be twin sister to this boy. I don’t want to -brag, but when I get a hunch like this it is apt to be right.” - -“Well then, let’s proceed on the assumption that Miss Fauntleroy is in -reality Miss Kambourian. What next?” - -“Next we must plan a campaign of watchful waiting. I will take charge -of the interior of Burnett & Burnett’s, keeping a never closing eye on -Miss Fauntleroy. I must have help to look after the beggar at the front -and the one at the back as well as the Kambourian apartment, both front -and back.” - -After much thought and discussion Mr. Cox and Josie, with the alert -intelligence of Jimmy Blaine to advise with them, decided the thing was -too big not to call in the assistance of the police. The blue coats -might bungle, but at least they could be set to watch the alley behind -the apartment house and report anything out of the way. - -“We’ve got a new chief here who is not so hide bound as the old one -was; in fact, he is very down-to-date in his methods. I am sure he will -cooperate with us. Call him up, Jimmy, and see if he is at his office. -Sunday is no more of a holiday to the police than to newspaper men.” - -The chief proved to be having a holiday in spite of its being Sunday, -but an alert young sergeant answered the call and even expressed -himself as willing to come to the newspaper office instead of having -the newspaper office come to him. The tale was quickly told. Sergeant -Tanner agreed with Josie on the plan of procedure. - -“Who am I, anyhow, to take issue with the daughter of the great -O’Gorman? I reckon you are a chip off the old block, Miss, because if -you had not been you never would have caught that Markle bunch. We know -all about that here in Wakely. We know how you tracked down that chap -in Atlanta, too, the one who had put his step-sister-in-law in a bug -house and was planning to marry her and cop the fortune. We know about -the kidnapping case in Louisville, also. You see we aren’t named Wakely -for nothing. Anyhow we are awake enough to keep up with the detective -news.” - -Josie could not help being flattered by Sergeant Tanner’s recognition -of merit but she merely blushed a little and said: - -“It was all luck, absolutely nothing but luck that made me successful -in those cases.” - -“I hope your luck will keep up,” said Mr. Cox. - -“Of course plain clothes men are what we will need,” said the sergeant, -“and I think I’ll be one of them. Shall I take over the apartment house -and the entrances to Burnett & Burnett’s?” - -“All right!” agreed Jimmy ruefully, “but what’ll I be doing? I want to -get in on this somewhere.” - -“You might be an inside man and help me in the shop,” said Josie. -“Somebody must watch Major Simpson or he’ll bungle things.” - -Sergeant Tanner was much amused over the poor Major and his bungling. - -“He’s a terrible dub at detecting. If he had called us in on this -shoplifting trouble we might have helped him but old Simp thinks he -knows it all and he is as ignorant of the game as a new born babe. -Now, Miss O’Gorman, I’ll detail some sharp men to keep an eye on the -apartment house to-night and others to look after it every minute of -the day to-morrow.” - -“And I’ll come in the shop and buy things and even make up to Miss -Fauntleroy,” suggested Jimmy. - -“Don’t get too much in evidence,” cautioned Josie. “And Sergeant -Tanner, be sure to keep a watch over the blind beggar man in front. As -for the woman with papers, I have an idea she will not come to work for -a day or so, not in the guise of an old woman, at least.” - -Josie felt it wise to see Mr. Burnett for a moment before returning -home to inform him how matters were progressing and to ask his approval -of the move she had made in taking both newspaper men and police force -into her confidence. - -He approved highly. “Between the two you will be sure to get help. As -for poor old Simpson, I wish he would have a slight indisposition that -would keep him away from the store to-morrow. Hasn’t he messed things -up, though?” - -“Perhaps not! Anyhow I am hoping the Kambourians are so foreign they -don’t read the American newspapers. The chances are they know nothing -of the publicity given the matter.” - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -MRS. LESLIE TURNS DETECTIVE - - -“How can anybody call Monday a blue day?” asked Josie the next morning -as Mrs. Leslie served a dainty breakfast to the two girls. “It seems to -me to be the most wonderful morning in the whole week. Even wash day -holds no terrors for me. It always has been the very best day of all -for me, a kind of weekly Easter, a day in which the whole world can -start afresh.” - -“I’m glad you like it,” said Mrs. Leslie, grimly. “I’ve been brought -up to feel differently.” Mrs. Leslie was having a mental and moral -reaction from the excitement of the Saturday and Sunday just passed. -“Monday was always a serious day with us in the country.” - -“But, Mother,” laughed Mary, “you surely do not consider it your -religious duty to be blue on Monday.” - -“Not exactly religious--but--” - -“Now, Mrs. Leslie, please don’t be too down-hearted or too busy -because I have a task for you that I am sure you can’t resist.” - -“Don’t be too sure child, because I am planning to clean beds to-day. -The sun is shining and it is a good thing to be beforehand with beds. I -can sun the things in the back yard--” - -“The very thing!” cried Josie delightedly. “The more you are out in the -back yard the better because I do so want you to keep an eye on those -Kambourians from the rear. They will not be the least suspicious of a -busy housewife engaged in the legitimate search connected with beds and -early spring.” - -Mrs. Leslie’s Monday gloom lifted a little. Being a private detective -was rather more interesting than the usual humdrum of housekeeping. She -promised Josie to keep a sharp lookout on the neighbors. - -“You never can tell about foreigners. They are more than apt to be off -color,” she declared. “If they do anything peculiar while you are away, -how must I proceed, Josie?” - -“Proceed to call up Burnett & Burnett, phone number, Preston 11, and -ask for Mr. Theodore Burnett--take no substitute. Tell him who you are -and what is happening. He will do the rest. The Kambourians may be -absent all day but the chances are the woman will not leave the house. -The place is even now being watched by detectives. But detectives do -not always see everything and I am depending on you to see what they -don’t see.” - -“Detectives watching the house now!” cried Mrs. Leslie, “I should say -this isn’t a blue Monday. I am thrilled indeed to be in the midst of a -mystery. Hurry up and get off, girls, so I can get out in the back yard -and see what I see.” - -“Now, Mother, don’t overdo it,” cautioned Mary. - -“Me overdo it!” said Mrs. Leslie, indignantly. “I know exactly how -to behave under the circumstances. I am going to run in and out -with pillows and blankets and carry out one slat at a time and put -mattresses in the windows and let them fall in the yard. I just wish -you and Josie could see me.” - -“I wish we could,” laughed Josie. “I am sure you are going to do it -splendidly and I am so glad you are interested in it. I just know you -will beat all the police in Wakely in helping to bring these crooks to -justice.” - -The girls were hardly out of the house when Major Simpson was calling -Mrs. Leslie on the telephone. The dear lady had not bargained for such -a development and it was with difficulty that she commanded her voice -to answer the smug old man as she knew he must be answered. She was -sorry she had not asked instructions from Josie on how to meet such an -emergency, but Major Simpson took matters in his own hands and there -was little for her to say but yes and no. - -“And how is my one time neighbor this morning? I hope she is well.” - -“Yes, thank you!” - -“Has that artful young person left your house?” - -“Yes!” - -“And she is going to return to her labors at Burnett & Burnett’s?” - -“Yes!” - -“What did she say concerning the article in the paper yesterday? You -saw it, did you not?” - -“Yes!” - -“It was unfortunate that it should have been published but newspapers -are ever on the alert for just such stories; human interest, you know.” - -“Yes!” - -“Was the artful person angry at the publicity given the matter?” - -“No!” - -“What did she say?” - -“I can’t remember exactly, but I think she said ‘Gee.’” - -“Of course I shall be for dismissing the young person, but Mr. Theodore -Burnett evidently thinks otherwise. These young men think they know it -all, but I have not dealt with crime all these years without acquiring -some knowledge of the youthful criminals. There is no reforming them. -Well, Miss Polly, I thank you for cooperating so wonderfully with me in -this matter. And you are not angry that the story--er--er--concerning -the coffee and doughnuts and er--er--the pink parasol should have -leaked out?” - -Mrs. Leslie’s: “Old idiot!” slipped out before she knew it but Major -Simpson’s: “What? What?” brought her to her senses and she covered -her retreat with a cough and smoothed things down by: “Old intimate -friends,” hoping that intimate and idiot might sound more or less alike -over a telephone. - -“Of course you will not let this young person remain under your -roof,” the Major proceeded. “I feel in a measure er--er--responsible -for you, Miss Polly, and hope you will allow me to dictate to you -to some extent. This young woman, even though Mr. Theodore Burnett -is so soft hearted as to keep her in the employ of his firm, is -hardly a fit person to associate with you or your--er--er--charming -daughter--because I am sure she is charming if she is your daughter. I -wish you would promise me that this O’Gorman person will not remain in -your home another night.” - -Mrs. Leslie hung up the receiver with a click. She was possessed with a -fury against the interfering Major that made it impossible to continue -the conversation although all that it entailed at her end was a -monosyllabic reply. She could well picture him at the other end of the -line, indignantly upraiding the telephone operator for having so rudely -cut him off. Her bell rang again sharply but she scorned answering it -and went about her combined business of bed airing and female sleuthing -with added vigor. - -“Miserable old man that he is! Wants me to turn a girl out in the -street just because he has made up his mind she is a thief. I don’t -feel bad any longer about hoodwinking the old idiot. He is narrow and -mean or he wouldn’t ask me to do it.” - -Josie was right in her guess--Madame Kambourian did not leave the -house that day. She, too, found many things to busy her on that bright -Monday. Much sorting and airing seemed to be going on in the apartment -next to the Leslies. Several times Mrs. Leslie looked up from her -labors and saw the pleasant, plump countenance of Mrs. Kambourian -peering at her from the open window. Once she nodded and a cheerful -“Good mor-r-rning,” was the response. - -“A nice day for preliminary spring cleaning,” ventured Mrs. Leslie. - -“Ver-r-ry nice,” said the neighbor, placing a silver fox scarf and a -sealskin jacket on the window sill where the sun could shine upon them. - -“You are not expecting moths this soon are you?” queried Mrs. Leslie. - -“Moths? You mean the cr-r-eatures that feed upon the fur-r and wool? -Ah, Heaven forbid! I merely sun my things because I love the sun and -then it is war-r-m and I may not need them now for many months. I pack -them up per-r-haps.” - -Through the open window Mrs. Leslie could see a large packing box and -a wardrobe trunk. - -“Getting ready to leave! It looks to me as though Josie should know -this,” she said to herself. Preston 11 was immediately called for by -the eager amateur detective and Mr. Theodore Burnett put on the line. - -“This is Mrs. Leslie, Mr. Burnett, Josie O’Gorman’s friend. Please tell -her the foreigners next door to us are getting ready to move and the -woman is sunning a silver fox scarf and a sealskin jacket, both of them -too good for anybody living in this house to use. I haven’t any good -furs of my own but I can tell them a mile off.” - -Mr. Theodore Burnett smiled and made a note of the fact that the -amateur lady detective had no furs but knew good ones a mile off. -This was the same lady of whose judgment in the matter of dry goods -Major Simpson had spoken so highly, knowing from the first that Josie -O’Gorman’s clothes were of material too good to have been bought from -the salary of a novice at the notion counter. - -“Clever lady!” he muttered in an aside, “Must keep her in mind.” He -thanked her profusely for the information and begged her to keep a -sharp lookout through the day. “The evidence you have gathered is -invaluable, my dear lady,” he assured her. - -“The window is open and I can see a large packing box and a wardrobe -trunk and this Kambourian woman is folding and packing as fast as she -can. I gossiped with her a moment, quite casually, and she told me -herself she was thinking of moving. You’d best tell Josie right off.” - -“You are right! Thank you, and good bye!” - -Mr. Burnett had just hung up the receiver when Major Simpson came -bustling into the office. - -“Ah, Mr. Theodore, and how are you this nice sunny morning? Spring -in the air, my boy, spring! I have come to see you concerning this -O’Gorman person. Singular case--quite singular! She is actually working -behind the notion counter this morning quite as though nothing had -happened--not at all abashed--but meek withal, meek and I must say -modest. She dropped her eyes when I passed and had occasion to stoop -and hide her head. Modest, quite modest! I feel more inclined to deal -gently with one who shows becoming modesty.” - -Mr. Burnett could not help a sly smile but he controlled himself and -said rather sternly: - -“Major Simpson, I ask you to let me do what dealing is necessary with -Miss O’Gorman, in fact, I ask you most emphatically.” - -This was as near as either of the Burnett brothers had ever come to -commanding the old gentleman whom they had so unwillingly inherited -from their predecessors, but Mr. Theodore Burnett had no intention of -letting Major Simpson mix himself up in the matter of Josie O’Gorman -and her methods any more than possible. - -“Certainly!” said the elderly detective, stiffly. “I have never been -one to overstep authority, but I feel it is my duty to warn you, young -and untried, against the machinations of a type like this O’Gorman -person.” - -“All right, Major Simpson, I am warned--and now I shall go and -interview the young lady.” - -“Do not be too easy on her,” insisted the determined Major. “I am--” -But what he was saying Mr. Burnett did not wait to hear. He felt that -Josie must be told immediately of the silver fox scarf and fur coat -sunning in the rear window at Number 11 Meadow Street, and of the large -packing box and wardrobe trunk and of Mrs. Leslie’s gossip. He was in -the elevator and making for the street floor of the store before the -Major’s sentence was completed. - -All was as Major Simpson had reported. There was Josie O’Gorman -conducting herself as though nothing had happened, selling tapes and -pins with as much industry as she would have shown had her living -depended upon it. - -At the jewel novelty counter across the aisle Miss Fauntleroy moved -with deliberate grace, totally unconscious of the fact that the sandy -haired little person with the unimportant countenance, who seemed so -busy making unimportant sales of bone buttons and shoe laces, never -once let the haughty beauty get out of her line of vision. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -THE GIRL IN THE RED TAM - - -There was an undercurrent of excitement at Burnett & Burnett’s on that -sunny Monday morning. Every clerk in the store had either read or heard -of the article in the Sunday paper. There was much conjecture as to the -identity of the beauty who had purloined the goods and then returned -them to Mr. Burnett. - -“It sounds like they were talking about me,” said Gertie Wheelan, -patting her permanent wave complacently. “That is, all but me being a -thief. Min knows I never took a bunch of lace off her counter because -when she missed it I was standing right here by her.” - -“Of course I know you didn’t, Gertie,” laughed Min, “but the fact that -you were standing near me when I missed it isn’t very good evidence -that you didn’t take it. I reckon your character is about the best -evidence that you didn’t take it. You are a vain old goose, Gertie, but -everybody knows you are as honest as you are vain, and that is going -some.” - -Gertie did not know whether to be complimented or not, but since it -was pleasanter to be flattered than to be censured she decided to be -flattered. - -“I’ve a great mind to ask old Simp who it was,” whispered Min. - -“I already did that,” put in Jane Morton, “and he had the cheek to -pretend he did not know what I was talking about. You see no names -are mentioned in the paper. He hummed and hawed and stuck out his -chest and patted his white waistcoat and said: ‘Really, my dear young -lady, I cannot conjecture er--er’ and he swelled up a little more and -went on: ‘Of course I cannot deny that I know what is going on in -this establishment, but prudence compels me to dissemble er--er--to -dissemble.’” - -The girls all laughed at Jane’s droll mimicry. - -“Have you had a chance to ask Josie O’Gorman what she thinks?” asked -Min. “Josie is a mighty wise little girl and I betcher she has her own -thinks on this subject just as she has on every other.” - -“Yes, I asked her,” replied Jane, “and she just laughed and said maybe -she was the wicked beauty her own self. She said she might as well be -because old Simpson had never taken his eye off her the whole morning. -Sure enough, there the old fellow was, circling around the notion -counter glaring all the time at Josie. I don’t see how she stands it. -I’d have to call him down and either make him quit his foolishness -or offer some explanation. Josie went on making sales and paid no -attention to him except once when he came close up to her she ducked -under the counter so she could relax into a giggle.” - -The girls had met for a moment near the cashier’s desk. Similar groups -were forming and breaking through the entire building. - -“Who do you think it is?” was asked again and again. - -Now and then some know-all would make a positive assertion such as: “I -know on good authority who it is but I am not at liberty to divulge the -name.” - -“Look!” and Min nudged Jane Morton. “There’s Mr. Theodore Burnett -talking to Josie O’Gorman. Old Simpson has left the floor. I saw him -going up on the elevator. I wonder what our junior member wants with -Josie. Look! She is evidently getting leave from the head of the -department. Jiminy crickets! If she isn’t leaving with the boss!” - -Min was right. Josie was leaving the floor with Mr. Theodore. The -information Mrs. Leslie had telephoned must be treated seriously and -without delay. The police must be warned and Josie felt the time -had come for a search warrant to be issued on the Kambourians. She -accompanied Mr. Burnett to his office and soon had the police station -on the line. - -“Any report from the detectives watching 11, Meadow Street?” she asked. - -“Nothing doing there!” was the answer from the man at the desk. - -“Well, I have inside information that the woman is packing up, so -you better get a search warrant ready and keep a close watch on the -premises,” she commanded. “Don’t let the men leave their post for a -moment.” - -“Hump!” grumbled the police sergeant, “anybody would think--” But what -anybody would think was lost on Josie who hung up the receiver with a -click. - -“Asleep at the switch as usual!” she exclaimed. “But I must hurry back -to my counter. I wish that old Major Simpson would get busy and help -me instead of circling around me with his eyes hanging out on his -cheeks.” - -“Shall I make him stop?” asked Mr. Burnett. - -“Oh no, perhaps he is safer watching me than he would be helping me. -Anyhow that Jimmy Blaine is on the job all right. He has been popping -in and out of the store all morning pretending to buy socks and ties -and matching ribbons for his imaginary wife. He is a clever lad. I have -a notion I’d better give up selling things for a while if you will -supply a girl for my counter.” - -“Indeed, yes!” agreed Mr. Theodore. - -When Josie did not return to her duties of selling notions the girls at -the neighboring counters commented on it. - -“Do you reckon she’s been shipped?” wondered one. - -“Hardly--she’s too good at the business and as regular as clock work.” - -“It’s funny she went off with the boss and has been gone an age and no -sign of her. I do hope she isn’t in any trouble. Look! There’s a green -girl at the button counter!” - -“Whatcher reckon is the matter? That old Simp is at the bottom of -it I betcher. He’s been bugging his eyes out at Josie for ever so -long. Look, there he is back again. He looks worried over something.” -Thus spoke Min, but her flow of eloquence was cut short by a customer -demanding to see some Irish lace. - -“The best is none too good for me,” asserted the customer sharply. She -was a young woman with bobbed black hair very much becurled, a mouth -so painted it gave one the impression that she had been eating poke -berries, cheeks to match not only lips but a string of red, red beads -twisted several times around her throat and hanging to her waist. -In her hand she carried a bright red swagger stick. Her hat--a red -tam--was worn far on one side. Brows and lashes were blackened to match -the blue-black hair. - -“Sure!” said Min demurely. “The best is none too good but it may be too -costly,” she muttered under her breath. - -“Never mind the cost--that is my affair. Ah, this is very sweet,” she -said, pulling out a bunch of the costly lace and spreading it out on -the counter. “But show me other widths and patterns. Have you any point -d’esprit?” - -“No, we have no point d’esprit,” said Min with ill concealed -impatience. Her lunch hour had struck and she felt it was hard lines to -be forced to show this painted flapper expensive lace that she was sure -she had no idea of buying. - -“Some duchesse, too,” demanded the determined shopper. “Nothing better -than that?” - -Poor Min was forced to produce more and better lace. The counter was -strewn with boxes of the priceless merchandise. Miss Fauntleroy was -ready to go out for luncheon. She paused for a moment to speak to Min. -All she said was: - -“Is not the store clock slow?” - -Min looked up from the lace she was showing the possible purchaser -and compared her wrist watch with the large time piece hanging on the -opposite wall. - -“I guess not,” she said, and resumed her labors. - -Miss Fauntleroy proceeded leisurely towards the front door. The much -made-up young person who had been so intent on lace, without one word -to Min, turned and followed the haughty beauty. The aisles were crowded -with shoppers but the bobbed haired, red mouthed flapper kept close -behind Miss Fauntleroy. - -Outside in the sunshine the dark beggar with a patch over one eye sat -and in a wheedling tone besought the passers-by to buy his pencils. - -“Ver-r-y fine--ver-r-y sharp--” he quavered. “Buy--sweet lady--buy.” -His one eye had appeal enough for two. Many persons dropped coins in -his outstretched hat. - -Miss Fauntleroy stopped in front of him. - -“Buy sweet lady--buy a pencil--” She stooped to select one from the -box of red, white and blue pencils he held on his knees. From that -moment astonishing things began to happen, both within and without the -department store of Burnett & Burnett’s. - -Within a sudden hue and cry was raised by the distracted Min. - -“Catch her! Catch her quick!” she cried to Major Simpson who was still -walking curiously and cautiously around the notion counter, as though -he expected Josie to bob up at any moment from behind the counter. - -“Catch what? Catch whom?” - -“That girl with the bobbed black hair in a red tam and red beads!” -screamed Min. “She’s ‘klept’ a whole bunch of lace--two bunches--maybe -three--the finest in the shop. At least I reckon she did it. Go after -her and get her. Don’t stand still. I can’t go myself because I’ve got -to keep an eye on all this stuff.” - -Major Simpson trotted obediently towards the front entrance. This was a -new turn of affairs--a shoplifter and not the elusive Josie. He bumped -into Mr. Theodore Burnett in the aisle. - -“Another thief!” he spluttered. “Girl with bobbed black hair and red -beads. Lace again--front entrance--better come with me!” - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -JOSIE O’GORMAN’S VICTORY - - -Outside the store even more stirring things were being enacted. When -Miss Fauntleroy leaned over with the seeming intention of selecting a -pencil from the beggar’s box there had been a quick exchange of glances -between the proud beauty and the one-eyed mendicant, an exchange of -glances and also the passing of a parcel which was slid from the wide, -bell shaped sleeve of the young woman into the open breast of the man’s -shabby coat. The movement was so rapid that no one who had not been on -the lookout could possibly have seen it. But someone was on the lookout -and that one was no other than the flapper of the bobbed black hair and -the red, red mouth. She did a very remarkable thing for a flapper. - -As quick as a flash she whipped out something from the pocket of her -tweed suit, which, when one came to think of it, was of rather sober -pattern for one so flapperish and not at all in keeping with the -red beads and startling tam. The article she drew from her pocket -flashed in the sunlight for a moment and then--snap! snap! and a pair -of handcuffs gleamed on the wrists of the one-eyed beggar before the -astonished Miss Fauntleroy could straighten up from the selection of a -pencil. - -“Don’t let him get away!” came in commanding tones from the mysterious -flapper. The remark was addressed to none other than Jimmy Blaine, -who had been pretending to be a corner masher during such moments as -he could spare from the business of shopping for a highly fictitious -family. - -“Trust me!” was his cheery rejoinder as he laid a heavy hand on the -shoulder of the beggar who was now trembling like a leaf. - -The girl with the bobbed black hair then caught Miss Fauntleroy by the -wrist, at the same moment producing another pair of handcuffs from the -capacious pockets of her tweed suit. She endeavored to snap them on the -wrists of the struggling girl, but Miss Fauntleroy proved too strong, -and jerking free, started to run. Swift as had been the action a crowd -had gathered, as crowds will, and closing around the struggling pair -cut off all avenues of escape. The black haired girl must have known -something about the game of football for she made a flying leap and -caught the taller girl in an iron grip. They swayed together and fell. - -In the scrimmage that ensued more startling things happened. Two hats -came off, and with them two heads of hair. A red tam and a bobbed -black wig were torn from the flapper, disclosing the closely coiled -sandy hair and well shaped head of none other than Josie O’Gorman. The -elaborate coiffure belonging to Miss Fauntleroy also came off with the -stylish picture hat. - -The combatants staggered to their feet. When Josie caught sight of -her antagonist, standing hot, sullen and ashamed, so hemmed in by the -crowd there was no escape, a wave of pity came over her. The proud and -haughty Miss Fauntleroy was only a poor misguided boy. The marcelled -wig with all its puffs and coils had turned a handsome lad into a -beautiful young woman. - -“Gee!” was all Josie could say. “And I thought you were your own sister -all the time. I hate to put handcuffs on you--won’t you come along -without them?” - -“Yes--I’m through. The game’s up and I’m glad of it. I’ll go along -with you all right.” - -Major Simpson, closely followed by Mr. Burnett, was trying to make his -way through the crowd. He knew something was going on and his superior -intelligence must be in demand. He also knew that lace had been -stolen and that a person with black bobbed hair was the thief. It was -irritating that it was not Josie O’Gorman who had been caught in the -act, but then, any thief was better than no thief at all. - -“Here, let me through! I am a detective.” - -The word detective was an open sesame for him. The crowd divided and he -and Mr. Burnett passed through to the scene of the fray. - -“Some scene it was!” Mr. Burnett described later on to his mother -and sisters. “There was little Miss O’Gorman, her suit all dusty and -dishevelled, her hat gone and her face made up in the most absurd -manner with blackened brows and painted lips. She had by the hand -a young boy dressed as a girl. Handsome? Handsome as Hermes! Shame -and anger were both depicted on his countenance, and his head, with -its dark, closely cropped curls, was hung in deep dejection. On the -pavement wigs and hats were so much in evidence that one might have -thought there had been a battle royal and both fighters had been -decapitated. I had no idea who the youth was at first, not recognizing -‘Miss Fauntleroy’ without her wig. Miss O’Gorman’s famous string of red -beads had broken and were scattered all over the pavement. It looked to -me like a million beads, some of them as big as bantam eggs.” - -Major Simpson, acting true to form, broke into the ring blustering as -usual. - -“What’s all this?” he demanded. Not recognizing Josie with her bizarre -make-up or Miss Fauntleroy without her wig, the old gentleman stood -gazing at the pavement. He suddenly remembered Min’s words: “Black -bobbed hair and red tam.” He stooped and picked up Josie’s wig and -hat. It looked as though a tragedy had just been enacted at the front -entrance of Burnett & Burnett’s. - -“Who has done this thing?” he asked solemnly, glaring all around. - -“I reckon I did,” laughed Josie. - -“I’ll say she did!” exclaimed Jimmy Blaine, who was still clinging to -the handcuffed beggar. - -At Josie’s words Major Simpson looked at her more closely and through -the paint recognized the dangerous criminal, Miss Josie O’Gorman. Just -then a policeman pushed his way through the crowd. - -“Officer, arrest this woman,” commanded Major Simpson officiously, -pointing an accusing finger at the grinning Josie. “I fancy, madam, you -will find this no laughing matter when you are safely behind bars.” - -“Yes, yes! She is the culprit!” cried the handcuffed beggar. “Good Mr. -Officer, let me loose. I have done nothing but sit here trying in my -poor-r way to make a living selling the pencils--and see, I am a good -American, because I sell only the red, white and blue of our flag.” - -“Do your duty, officer,” insisted Major Simpson. “Arrest this young -woman. She is a shoplifter and depraved beyond belief for one so -er--er--young.” - -“And beautiful,” smirked the irrepressible Josie. She then turned to -the officer, all levity of manner falling from her. “I am detective -Josie O’Gorman, Sergeant Fagan. I have just caught this boy red-handed. -Open his father’s coat and you will find a heap of costly lace which -has been stolen from Burnett & Burnett within the last few minutes. -I’ll turn this youth over to you. I am sure his case is one for the -juvenile court to deal with. The father, who goes by the name of -Kambourian and lives at 11 Meadow Street, is the one to arrest.” - -The lace was found just as Josie had said, three bunches of it hidden -in the ragged coat of the patch-eyed beggar. The patrol wagon was -called and father and son were carried off, Kambourian loudly asserting -his innocence in spite of the lace found in his manly bosom. He -declared to the end that he had no idea how it had got there. - -“I’ll follow as soon as I can wash my face,” Josie whispered to -Sergeant Fagan. “Keep a close watch on the old bird. I believe the -young one, poor fellow, is glad the thing has broken and I fancy you’ll -have no trouble with him.” - -Mr. Burnett had been a silent witness to the encounter between Josie -and Major Simpson--silent and amused. He had promised Josie to let -her manage the affair and he had done so, although he had been sorely -tempted to step in and interfere when the self satisfied old gentleman -had so peremptorily commanded the policeman to arrest the little -detective. Now he wondered what stand Major Simpson would take and for -a moment felt sorry for the hereditary employee of the firm of Burnett -& Burnett. He need not have wasted his sympathy, however, as that -gentleman’s self esteem was proof against any shock. He immediately -took possession of the stolen lace as though he, and he alone, had been -responsible for its recovery. - -“Ah, yes, I was sure we could track down the criminal. A little -patience and eternal vigilance and lo, the thief is caught!” - -“Exactly!” said Josie, “but not always the right thief.” - -“Patience, I say, patience and astuteness will unravel any mystery,” -continued Major Simpson, ignoring Josie’s remark. “You will remember, -Mr. Burnett, that I said from the beginning that Miss O’Gorman was not -what she seemed. You will grant me that, eh?” And thus did the old man -talk on and on, seeming actually to feel that it was his cleverness -that had caught the shoplifters. - -The net had closed around the Kambourians--husband, wife and son. The -search warrant revealed a great store of stolen articles, taken not -only from Burnett & Burnett’s but from almost every shop in Wakely; -dainty, choice articles, just the kind with which to stock a novelty -shop, which had been Madame Kambourian’s ambition. - -“We had only just acqui-r-r-ed enough things,” she wailed after she and -her husband were sentenced to a term in the penitentiary. “And I would -have been all moved and away if that bad, bad per-r-son had not warned -the author-r-ities that I was planning to flit. Such a kind looking -per-r-son too! But one nevair-r-e can tell who is false.” - -Be it said in favor of Kambourian, the man, that his deepest concern -was for “poor Mamma” and his chief regret that she should not have -escaped. - -“If she had only told us that the young lady had bought the paper -in which the articles of value were twisted we would have been more -careful,” he said to Jimmy Blaine, who interviewed him for the great -soul stirring scoop. “She merely said the lace and things had been -lost. We had no knowledge how and we did not question poor Mamma too -closely because we are always so tender of her. She is so gay and -we did so hate to make her sad. This beggar’s life was hard on poor -Mamma--to sit all day and whine for pennies when she loved so to live -and be happy. And clothes--ah _mon Dieu_, how poor Mamma does love to -dress up--yes--yes--I, too, like the life. Ah me! All that is to be -postponed--but perhaps--some day--” - -The boy, Roy, was taken before the juvenile court where the wise -young judge listened to all Josie had to tell him of the unfortunate -environment in which he had been raised. She told of the conversation -she had overheard through the open window and of the boy’s evident -reluctance to proceed in the dishonest course mapped out for him by his -parents. - -“Yes,” the boy told the judge, “I have hated it always, but because I -had the knack of mimicry and could pass myself off for a girl I was -forced to wear those fool clothes and pretend I was ‘Miss Fauntleroy.’ -I despised myself all the time, despised myself and began to despise -them, I mean my mother and father, although they did love me and were -always kind to me except that they made a thief of me. Of course if I -was going to be a thief I determined to be the very cleverest thief in -the business, and if it had not been for you, Miss O’Gorman, I believe -I could have been. Anyhow I am glad it is all over and I’m going to be -as straight now as I used to be crooked. All I want is a chance. Gee, -I’m glad to be able to wear pants all the time! I never have been a -sissy, and many is the time I felt like jumping in the river when I had -to wear those silly skirts and picture hats. It was poor Mamma’s fault. -Not that I blame her, for she did so want to have a nice little shop -of her own and dress up in pretty things. She always said when once we -got together enough things we would go into a real business and stop -stealing. Poor Mamma! I wish I could do something for her.” - -Josie thought that a prison term might do more for poor Mamma than -anything else. At least it might teach her that honesty was the best -policy for her to pursue in the future. - -A chance was given Roy. The judge of the juvenile court sent him to -an industrial school where it would be possible for him to work out -his own salvation. He was as a brand snatched from the burning and, by -God’s grace, snatched in time. Josie was sorry for the youth and Mary -Leslie wept many tears in her pity. - -“He was so handsome,” she sobbed. - -“He still is,” consoled Josie, “and now it can be ‘Handsome is as -handsome does,’ as my father used to say. This thing broke just in -time to save that poor boy from becoming a confirmed criminal. As it -is, I bet anything he’ll pull through and come out of that school a -good fellow and a useful citizen. He is interested in the stage and I -hope he’ll do something big in the dramatic line some day. The way he -acted _Miss Fauntleroy_ was little short of genius.” - -“Perhaps he’ll come out all right,” said Mrs. Leslie, “but I have my -doubts about foreigners. Anyhow I am glad we took you to board, Josie, -because it has made life much more interesting. Just to think of Mr. -Burnett’s writing me a letter of thanks for the part I took in helping -to catch that woman! Of course I appreciate the handsome check he sent -me and the fur jacket he sent Mary, but I think more of the letter than -I do of the check and the jacket. After all, the detective tales I have -read did something for me, if only to make me keep my eyes open for -mix-ups.” - -Major Simpson decided after due consideration to accept Burnett & -Burnett’s offer of a pension and he determined to retire from the -active labors of a detective. - -“Of course this is a good time to retire, while I am yet in the hey-dey -of my powers,” he was heard to say to Miss Willie at Maison Blanche. -Mrs. Trescott was the person who heard him say it and it was with -difficulty that she controlled her merriment. “I have just been the -means of tracking down for my firm a family of desperate criminals -and--er--er--out of gratitude to me the Burnett Brothers have offered -to pension me on--er--er--full pay.” - -“How wonderful!” trilled Miss Willie. “But you will remain in Wakely, -surely?” - -“Ah, yes! In fact I should not like to go far from Burnett & Burnett’s -because they may need my advice at any moment. My advice--er--er--is -most important.” - -Josie had made many friends at Burnett & Burnett’s, and they were one -and all very sorry that she was leaving the notion counter and Wakely. - -“We felt all the time that you were a little different,” Jane Morton -told her. “Min and I used to talk about it, but we just thought you -had picked up more education than we had and that was what made you -different. If we had ever known that you were a detective we might have -been a little shy. But we have learned that a woman detective may also -be a human being. As for that ‘Miss Fauntleroy,’ my blood boils when I -think of her--him. Anyhow we never did have much to do with him because -we always mistrusted her--er--him. She never did seem natural and now -since she has turned out to be a boy, I see the reason. One thing to -his credit, he was a gentleman, even when masquerading as a girl, and -never tried to get chummy with us. I feel a little sorry for him and -hope he will turn out all right.” - -That night Josie accepted Mr. Theodore Burnett’s insistent invitation -to take dinner at his home. There was no longer any good reason for -refusal, though in truth she sought no such reason. - -Never was there a gayer, livelier party. Mr. Burnett’s sisters, May and -Lily, vied with one another in little acts of gracious hospitality, and -the aged mother, austerely garbed in a voluminous black dress, gave the -lie to her years and her garb as fires kindled in her deep set eyes at -the retelling of the capture of the shoplifters. Mr. Theodore was high -in his praise and colorful in his narration. - -Josie, vivacious enough in other matters, had little to say concerning -her latest exploit, having learned from her father that modesty and -justifiable pride are becoming handmaidens. - -“Now, Miss O’Gorman,” said Mr. Theodore when the dinner was over, -“let us come back to a matter of business. You know how we appreciate -your efforts and how valuable your services have been to our firm. -However, it is hardly to be hoped that this will definitely stop all -shoplifting. When the story has cooled, the whole wretched business -will flare up again. Through diplomacy we have succeeded in influencing -Major Simpson to retire on full pay. No doubt he deserves it, for as -my brother Charles points out, loyalty deserves reward, and the Major -was certainly loyal. Now we are in need of a house detective and we are -willing to substantially increase the pay where results are as certain -as mere loyalty. A-hem, the--the place is yours, Miss O’Gorman, if you -will take it.” - -Before the astonished Josie could form a reply the aged mother broke in: - -“I hope you will accept, and I want you to come here to live. This is a -big house, plenty of room, and you will add a great deal of life to our -colorless world. I have reared four children who have been successful -in a matter-of-fact way. I feel that I would like to mother you--you -with your startling ingenuity. Won’t you come?” - -“You simply _must_!” chorused Lily and May. “Please do. Just think of -the things we could think up to do,” and they clapped their hands in -anticipation. - -Josie was troubled. She appreciated the kindness; sensed its deep -sincerity. But she knew her own spirit--knew that dull routine could -not long hold her interest. - -“I am sorry,” she began simply, “but I must get back to Dorfield and -my work. The Higgledy Piggledy Shop needs me, and somehow I seem to -need it. Then, too, Captain Lonsdale writes me that there is work to do -right away--a peculiar case that he thinks I can handle. I--I simply -can’t tell you how I feel, but surely you will understand.” - -“I do,” nodded the mother. “You are too big a girl for a little place. -We will miss you, but I am glad that you are ambitious.” - -“It isn’t ambition,” answered Josie, and a big tear stood in her eye. -“It is a sort of trust, the carrying on of my father’s work.” - -“Well, well,” boomed Mr. Theodore, vigorously blowing his nose, “you -must not forget us. Some day you may feel like accepting the offer. It -is an open one and may bring you back to Wakely.” - -“Poof!” protested Lily. “As if she must wait for _that_ to bring her -back. She is going to visit us at least once every year and give us a -complete account of herself--won’t you, Josie?” - -“I’d love to,” Josie answered quietly. - -She little realized what the coming year would bring and how thrilling -would be that first account. Some hint of it came to her a few days -later when she reached Dorfield and called on Captain Lonsdale. The -task put before her called for the best that was in her; an undertaking -worthy of the efforts of her illustrious father. - -Sobered by the importance of the coming quest, she seemed to have -lost some of her spontaneity when her friends, Irene and Mary Louise, -rapturously greeted her return to the Higgledy Piggledy Shop. - -“My dear,” said Mary Louise a little later when the first warm gush of -welcome was over, “you have changed. You seem so quiet and--and sort -of sweetly pensive. I declare, Irene, I believe she is in love.” - -“I am,” said Josie, comically wriggling her nose in her old manner, -“with my work.” - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - - -Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - -Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - -Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOSIE O'GORMAN AND THE MEDDLESOME -MAJOR *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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