Josie decided that Ursula must come to Louisville immediately.
“I’ll telegraph in the morning,” said Josie. “I can’t bear to get the poor girl out on the midnight train, and in the meantime I must get some sleep, in spite of the fact that my brain is going around like a whirligig. Now let’s see. We’ve got a lot of evidence against Cheatham that he is as crooked as a snake, but we have nothing to prove he kidnaped little Philip or caused him to be kidnaped. Where is the child? All of the money from the diamond mines will mean nothing to Ursula if her baby brother isn’t found.”
The problem spun over and over in Josie’s mind, until at last she dropped asleep. It seemed to her she had only lost consciousness a moment when she heard a brisk knocking on her door. It was broad daylight. A glance at her watch informed her it was eight o’clock.
“Here am a letter fo’ you, honey,” Aunt Mandy was calling as she kept up a steady tapping on the door. “One er them there ’portant ’pistles wiv a blue stamp an’ a boy a-ridin’ fer dear life on it. I reckon some er yo’ folks mus’ be daid ter be in sich a hurry ter let you know ’bout it.”
Josie jumped from her bed and opened the door.
“I do hope I’m not late for breakfast, Aunt Mandy! It won’t take me a minute to get down. I don’t want Miss Lucy to be telling me what’s what.”
“Lawsamussy, honey, any time befo’ nine ’ll go in dis house,” Aunt Mandy went off grinning happily over the quarter Josie had slipped into her hand.
The special delivery letter was from Ursula and there was much in it to cause our little detective to ponder. Could it be that she was wrong and Cheatham had nothing to do with the crime of carrying off little Philip? Josie sat hunched up in bed, lost in thought. She read over and over Ursula’s copy of the letter found under her door. One thing sure, Ursula had better take the next train to Louisville. Sitting hunched up in bed and thinking was not getting anywhere, so Josie quickly got ready for breakfast. Teddy must be communicated with immediately, but that young man had caught an early trolley from Peewee and before Josie finished her breakfast he was ringing Miss Lucy’s doorbell and eagerly asking for Miss Josie O’Gorman.
“I must talk to you somewhere, but where?” asked Josie. “A boarding-house parlor is hardly the place for a chat, and it’s too cold and sloppy to talk while we walk.”
“How about my office?”