“Look here, Heneman,” he said, “may I offer a suggestion?”
“I’ve known you to do it before and come away with your life.”
“Say, can’t you run the children through their parts right away and hold up all the other parts till the little ones have finished?”
“Why? What’s the big idea?”
“The big idea is this: the detective agency has a hunch that Mrs. Vernon is dead. They’ve sent me a story about some woman picked up dead near San Luis Obispo, and they claim it is Barbara. That is, they claim it’s Bobby’s mother. When I got that letter two days ago I nearly dropped.”
“Did you tell Bobby?”
“What kind of an idiot do you think I am? Of course I didn’t. And after the first shock I did not believe a word of it.”
“Why not?”
“I believe that she’s alive, because Bob is certain. You ought to see that boy pray! Why, that boy has all heaven on his side.”
“Well, I’ll be—” Not finishing his expression of astonishment, Heneman went on: “But what under the sun has this to do with hurrying the children through their parts?”