CHAPTER VII
JOSIE VISITS LOUISVILLE
Christmas morning in Louisville! Josie was still regretting the hours spent in reading the detective story that should have been dedicated to sleep, but she was happily constituted and could do with very little sleep if the case she was on necessitated it. At other times she put in eight hours at night—never more and never less.
“Humph! This place might be London, it is so foggy,” she mused as the train crawled along the river bank. On one side the Ohio river, muddy and trying to freeze, on the other side the slums of the city, smoky and full of deep puddles that had succeeded in freezing.
Josie had been planning a campaign through the hours spent in her berth. First she must find out things. What type of man she had to deal with in Cheatham? What reason might he have for abducting Philip? Where was Miss Fitchet at the present, and what was her reputation in Louisville?
Experience had taught Josie that the way to find out things about persons was to seek a boarding house, not too fine, but where those who wanted to keep up appearances on limited incomes had their abode. By diligent inquiry she had learned of such a place from the colored Pullman porter.
“Yassum, I’s bawn an’ bred in Lou’ville,” he had said as he whisked every imaginary speck of dust from Josie’s coat. “Th’ain’t nothin’ I don’ know ’bout dat town. I kin ’member when mule cyars uster fotch th’ folks up ’n down Fo’th Street befo’ trolleys wuz ever hearn tell about.”
“Maybe you can tell me of a good boarding house then,” Josie had ventured, “one not too expensive but respectable.”
“Sho I kin! Miss Lucy Leech air got a nice place for a lone young lady ter go. Miss Lucy ain’t above puttin’ on some style but th’ swell part er town am kinder moved off an’ lef’ Miss Lucy high an’ dry. But plenty er good folks am still a-boa’din’ with Miss Lucy Leech. Mah wife she’s de cook ter Miss Lucy an’ she been thar so long I reckon she’ll stay thar till she er Miss Lucy goes ter jine the heavenly throng. Th’ain’t no need fer mah Mandy ter wuck out no mo’ but she ’lows I’m off on the road mo’n most er the time an’ she mought as well be wuckin’ as gaddin’ about.”
Josie was sure Miss Lucy Leech’s was exactly the place she wanted for a temporary home. The porter gave her the address and when the train drew into the station he put her in care of a negro driver, who proudly bore her off to his ancient hack oblivious to the jeers of the taxi drivers who were lined up waiting for passengers.