Then Alexander got up from the table and said:
“I would like to meet you here every morning about this hour for a few minutes to compare notes. Would it be convenient or agreeable?”
“Certainly—both, Alick. I am entirely at your service. And God grant you success!”
Then Alexander took up his hat and gloves, saying:
“I am going to Police Head-Quarters first.”
Dick laughed lugubriously.
“Alick,” he said, “the detective police have been using their utmost skill to find the lost child. They have been hard at work for a month.”
“I know it, but they work in a routine; they also have come to move in a groove. The thieves know the detectives’ ways by this time and elude them. I shall go about the business in an original manner. Good-by, Dick. I thank you earnestly for all your patient forbearance and goodness to me. Help them to take care of my poor girl.”
“Certainly I will. But, Alick! do you take care of yourself. It is very damp.”
“Never fear. No one takes cold who has so much else to think about and do. Well, once more—good-by till to-morrow, Dick.”