She had so much to tell Ursula, and Ursula had so much to tell her, and Philip had so much to say about his wanderings, that the station at Louisville was reached all too soon.
Teddy was there waiting for them, his eyes aglow with a new light as Ursula stepped from the train.
At the same time, from the forward coach, two men and a woman alighted on the platform. They were Cheatham, Miss Fitchet and her brother. All of them were angry. Cheatham was trying to pacify Miss Fitchet, who was violently accusing him of having abducted little Philip. He in his turn was eying Bill with disfavor, feeling sure that he was in some way responsible for the disappearance of the boy. Never having heard of Miss Fitchet’s having a brother until they boarded the moving train at Cincinnati and burst in upon him with violent invective and vituperation, it was but natural for him to be suspicious of the two. Still it behooved him to endeavor to calm the woman, as she already knew too much about his underhand operations for it to be safe for him to make an enemy of her.
All unconscious of the happy group at the far end of the platform, the three persons united by villainy and divided by distrust approached. Bill was the first to see Philip.
“Yonder’s the brat, you hound!” he cried out in a rage. “So you had him on the train with you all the time! But we’ve trapped you.”
Miss Fitchet was quick to see that Ursula had hold of her little brother’s hand and at the same moment Mr. Cheatham realized that standing by her were Teddy Trask, Ben and, strange to say, the silly little flapper person who had talked to him on the way up to Cincinnati only that morning.
Looking down the long platform, Ursula saw the sinister trio. Her instinct was to clasp her little brother to her heart and run, but a fine something that was in the girl made her stand up and, with head erect and eyes flashing, face the persons who had caused her as bitter hours as could be spent by the innocent.
“That man with Mr. Cheatham and Miss Fitchet is the one who brought the note to me; I recognize the man I saw coming up the street,” she whispered to Josie.
“He’s the one she calls Bill,” said Philip. “He wrote the note, ’cause I saw him doin’ it. You ain’t gonter let them take me away again, are you, Sister?”
Teddy picked the boy up and put him on his shoulder.