“First of all, I want to find these girls’ names on the hotel register and see what names they are using. Then I want, if possible, to engage a room near theirs and listen for them all night. And third, I want you, or one of your assistants, Mr. Hayden, to be right there in readiness, in case they do anything tonight.”
“You haven’t evidence enough to convict them of the robberies at Stoddard House?” asked Mr. Hayden.
“Oh no. I may be entirely mistaken. It is only a clue I am going on. But I believe it is worth following up.”
“What do you say, Hayden?” inquired the manager.
“I’m glad to help,” replied the younger man. “I’ll be on duty tonight, anyhow, and I’d enjoy the investigation. Nothing is lost, even if nothing does happen.”
“Then let’s go have a look at the register,” suggested Mary Louise.
“Better send for it,” said the detective. “Arouse no suspicions.”
The book was brought to them, and Mary Louise looked carefully for the names of Pauline Brooks and Mary Green. But she did not find them. She did, however, find the name of Mary Jackson, and with it a name of Catherine Smith, both of whom had arrived that day and engaged a room together on the sixth floor.
“Those must be the girls,” she concluded. “Room 607. What’s the nearest room you can give me?”
The manager looked in his records.