“N––no, I suppose not. But that will take additional money. Very well, I’ll do it. I’ll put a mortgage on my Ohio holdings at once.”
“I don’t think I would be afraid,” suggested Miss Wall. “We might not use the information Carmen may collect in Avon or Washington, but something, I am sure, is bound to come out of it. Something always comes out of what she does. She’s the greatest asset the Express has. We must use her.”
“All well and good,” put in Haynerd. “And yet, if she finds anybody down there who needs help, even the President himself, she’ll throw the Express to the winds, just as she did in Sidney’s case. You can’t bank on her!”
“No, that’s true, Ned, for while we preach she’s off somewhere practicing. We evolve great truths, and she applies and demonstrates them. But she has saved Sidney––her Christ did it through her. And she has given the lad to us, a future valuable man.”
“Sure––if we are to have any future,” growled Ned.
“See here,” retorted Hitt, brindling, “have we in our numerous gatherings at Madam Beaubien’s spoken truth or nonsense? If you believe our report, then accept and apply it. Now who’s to go to Avon with Carmen?”
“Sidney,” suggested Miss Wall.
“Sid?” exclaimed Haynerd. “Huh! Why, if those Magyars down there discovered he was Ames’s son, they’d eat him alive!”
The telephone rang. Hitt answered the call. Then, turning to his companions:
“Waite says he wants a meeting to-night. He’d like to report on his research work. Guess we’d better call it. I’ll inform Morton. No telling when we may get together again, if the girl––” He became suddenly silent, and sat some time looking vacantly out through the window.