“What? Do you mean they weren’t content with that?”
“Not so that you could notice it, they weren’t! The girls went to Long Lake, up in the woods, and while they were there, a gypsy tried to carry them off. He mixed them up a bit, and, partly by good luck, and partly by Bessie’s good nerve and pluck, he was caught and landed in jail at Hamilton, the county seat up there.”
“Was Holmes mixed up in that?”
“Yes. He’d been fool enough to write a letter to the gypsy, and sign his own name to it. He hired lawyers to defend the gypsy, too, but that letter smashed his case, and the gypsy went to jail. They were afraid of Holmes, though, at Hamilton and we couldn’t touch him. He’s got a whole lot of money and power, too, especially in politics. So he can get away with things that would land a smaller man in jail in a jiffy.”
“His money and pull won’t do him any good down here,” said Trenwith, his eyes snapping. “Have you any reason to think he was mixed up in this outrage here this morning and last night, Charlie?”
“Every reason to think so, Billy, but mighty little proof to back up what I think. There’s the rub. Still–well, we’ll see what we see later. I’ll give you some of the reasons.”
“You’d better,” said Trenwith, grimly. “I think it’s pretty nearly time for me to take a hand in this.” He shot a look at Eleanor that Bessie did not fail to notice. Evidently her charms had already made an impression on him.
“Yesterday, when Miss Mercer brought the girls down to Bay City from Windsor,” Jamieson went on, “the train was to stop for a minute at Canton, which, though they had none of them thought of it, is in Weeks’s state. And Bessie happened to discover that Jake Hoover was spying on them. She stayed behind the others at Windsor, discovered that he was telegraphing the news to Holmes, and guessed the plot.”
“Good for her!” exclaimed Trenwith.
“So she got a message through to Miss Mercer on the train, and, being warned, Zara was able to elude the people who searched the train for her at Canton. Bessie went on a later train that didn’t stop at Canton at all, so they were all right.”