After the above interview with Dud, Helen went downtown to see Sadie again; and she ran around the corner to spend a few minutes with Mr. Lurcher. As she went up the stairs she passed a man coming down. It was dark, and she could not see the person clearly. Yet Helen realized that the individual eyed her sharply, and even stopped and came part way up the stairs again to see where she went.
When she came down to the street again she was startled by almost running into Mr. Grimes, who was passing the house.
“What! what! what!” he snapped, staring at her. “What brings you down in this neighborhood? A nice place for Mr. Willets Starkweather’s niece to be seen in. I warrant he doesn’t know where you are?”
“You are quite right, Mr. Grimes,” Helen returned, quietly.
“What are you doing here?” asked Grimes, rather rudely.
“Visiting friends,” replied Helen, without further explanation.
“You’re still trying to rake up that old trouble of your father’s?” demanded Grimes, scowling.
“Not down here,” returned Helen, with a quiet smile. “That is sure. But I am doing what I can to learn all the particulars of the affair. Mr. Van Ramsden was a creditor and father’s friend, and his daughter tells me that he will do all in his power to help me.”
“Ha! Van Ramsden! Well, it’s little you’ll ever find out through him. Well! you’d much better have let me do as I suggested and cleared up the whole story in the newspapers,” growled Grimes. “Now, now! Where’s that clerk of mine, I wonder? He was to meet me here.”
And he went muttering along the walk; but Helen stood still and gazed after him in some bewilderment. For it dawned on the girl that the man who had passed her as she went up to see old Mr. Lurcher, or “Jones,” was Leggett, Fenwick Grimes’s confidential man.