“I—I—could not forward mail to my stepdaughter when I did not know her address,” stammered Cheatham.
“Your confederate, Miss Fitchet, saw Miss Ellett in Dorfield in November. The police of that town have a record of her having been in Dorfield at that time, immediately after Mr. Benson wrote to Ursula. His letter is now in my possession, so you need not worry to look it up. I also hold the will of the late Mr. Benson and will expect to see the representative from the firm of Toler & Smith, who will be in Louisville shortly, so I understand.
“I shall ask you in the morning to account in full for the estate of the late Philip Ellett. What belongs to the children you have defrauded shall be returned to them unless you are willing to spend some twenty years behind the bars.
“As for you,” and Teddy Trask turned on Miss Fitchet, who had been rather enjoying the ragging her employer was undergoing, “you had best be very quiet and behave very well. You have been guilty of a great crime and it rests with Miss Ellett whether or not you shall be punished for it. The police in Louisville have you under surveillance, so you need not hope to escape if it is desirable to keep you.”
“Anything more?” asked Cheatham sullenly.
“Yes, don’t trust silly flappers with the name of the hotel where you expect to stop,” said Josie, in her natural voice and manner, which were in startling contrast to the one which she had hitherto used in addressing Cheatham.
Turning to the abashed nurse, Josie said: “As for you, Miss Fitchet, when you are running off with poor little boys and almost breaking their sisters’ hearts, don’t pass by fires where the camera man is no doubt on his job. News reels are quickly developed and on the screen. If I had not seen you on the screen, dragging poor little Philip along the sidewalk near where the big fire was on Christmas morning in Cincinnati, I might have taken much longer to trace you. I say ‘thank goodness for the movies.’ Also please let me add that the world would have more respect for all of you if you could realize that there should be honor among thieves.”
Transcriber’s Note:
Spelling, hyphenation and punctuation have been retained as they appear in the original publication, except as follows: