“That is the job I have left him to do,” said Mr. Howbridge. “He tells me the man who saved Pendleton from arrest in the first place is Israel Stumpf.”
“‘Israel Stumpf’? Let me see—haven’t I heard that name before?”
“Perhaps. I understand he is Mr. Kolbeck’s stepson.”
“That is it!” cried Ruth. “Miss Titus spoke of him. And—and somehow I drew from what she said that Israel Stumpf was not a friend to Mr. Pendleton.”
“My clerk says he is the boy who saved Pendleton from immediate arrest.”
“Saved him?” quoted Ruth. “Don’t you mean that he balked the intention of the firm to arrest the suspect and have the matter cleared up at once?”
“You split hairs like any lawyer,” laughed Mr. Howbridge. Yet he stared at the girl thoughtfully for a long minute. Then: “I see your point. I am going to wireless my office a message. Perhaps a closer examination into the life and works of Israel Stumpf might prove important.”
The little folks were, of course, immensely interested in the sending of that message, although they did not know its purport. Tess and Dot wandered about the decks of the steamship in their furs, Dot with the Alice-doll hugged close to her breast, and stared at everything they saw new; and, in Dot’s case at least, asked innumerable questions.
When the Horridole got out into the Gulf Stream where the air and sea were both warmer—much warmer than at Boston—the two little girls began to enjoy themselves enormously. They did not have to bundle up so much and the sea-air was delightful.
Its effect upon Ruth and Agnes was equally efficacious. They soon stopped the “Hark, from the tomb a mournful sound!” as Neale had called their separate coughs. Ruth was soon able to walk about. Already Agnes, leaning on Neale’s arm at first, paced the upper deck, around and around, “to get an appetite,” she said.