The chief pressed his electric bell.
“Tell Slater to come to me as soon as he comes in,” he told the man who came at his summons.
“Excuse me, Chief,” Josie said earnestly, after the man had left, “but please do not get me in bad with Slater. My father used to say that nothing was so hard to combat as an antagonistic local police force and I’m sure, if you let Slater know I have found out about the garage being entered, he will have it in for me. Isn’t he the man who let Felix Markle escape when we had him for sure? If it hadn’t been for that wonderful young newspaper chap, Bob Dulaney, Markle would have been a free man this day.”
“Strange to say he is a free man. I have just got a report that he has broken jail and is at large.”
Josie whistled, a form of astonishment she occasionally permitted herself.
“Well what’s the use?” she asked wearily. “What’s the use of nabbing these persons if you hand them over to a set of boobs who can’t keep them when once they get them? We can look out for the female of the species now, Chief. She is as certain to get back to her Felix as a homing pigeon. There is that one good thing about Hortense Markle. She is surely crazy about her old man. I wonder if they will begin operations around these parts. I shouldn’t be surprised if they did. Dorfield proved an easy mark up to a certain point.”
“No, no! They would hardly come back here.” Chief Lonsdale spoke with conviction. “They are too well known and they will, of course, be on to the fact that I am possessed of the knowledge that Markle has got out.” He spoke with a certain pomposity that very much amused Josie. However, she concealed her grin and agreed with the chief.
“You won’t put Slater on to the fact that the garage has been entered, will you?”
The chief pondered.
“Not if you say so, but I can’t have my men slighting their duty.”