"Didn't you?" questioned Joe, with even more of that puzzling significance.
"A Jap kidnaping the Queen of the Sunshine Islands," Mr. Kingley said slowly. His eyes brightened. "Such pub—I mean," as he caught the indignant flash in Joe's eyes—"I mean, I hope it won't lead to any international complication."
"I hope not," agreed Joe, wishing he could raise the top of Mr. Kingley's head, with its shining scalp and fringe of pepper-and-salt hair, and take a look at his mental machinery. "You can't tell me anything more then, Mr. Kingley? You don't know anything about this?" His eyes seemed to be boring into Mr. Kingley's very soul.
"Know? How should I know anything?" demanded Mr. Kingley, and he looked insulted.
"Several little things made me think that possibly you might know more about the Sunshine Islands and their queen than you admit," Joe told him with more of that disagreeable significance. "Maybe you know more about the Sons of Sunshine than I do," he added, as Mr. Kingley turned away with a muttered exclamation.
"Yes, yes," he said hastily. "Bill told me about them, that they had threatened to make trouble for Miss Gilfooly. I told Bill then that she should ask for police protection, but Bill laughed at me and said Ka-kee-ta with his ax was worth a platoon of police."
"I thought you would know about them," Joe went on completely ignoring what Mr. Bill said. "And perhaps you know about the special representative—I believe his name is Pitts? The Sons of Sunshine claimed they had him a prisoner."
"I don't know a word about him!" Mr. Kingley seemed pained to hear that Joe thought that he did. "I don't see why you come here, Cary, and talk to me as if I were implicated in this kidnaping. Why aren't you running down this clue you have? Did Ethel telephone to the insurance company? Who got the number anyway? Are you sure that it's correct?"
"I'm sure. Johnny Gilfooly took the number, and he's a Boy Scout and trained to observe."