“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.”