"That is very good of her," replied the Colonel, highly pleased. "Josie is very resourceful and while she may not be able to trace Alora she will at least do all in her power, and perhaps her clever little brain will be able to fathom the mystery of the girl's disappearance."
"She tells us to notify the police, but we did that at once. I don't know of anything else we can do, Gran'pa, until Josie comes."
Colonel Hathaway communicated with the police office several times that day and found the officials courteous but calm—prolific of assurances, but not especially concerned. This was but one of a number of peculiar cases that daily claimed their attention.
"I should hire a private detective, were not Josie coming," he told Mary Louise; "but of course it is possible we shall hear of Alora, directly or indirectly, before morning."
But they did not hear, and both passed a miserable, wakeful, anxious night.
"There is no use in our consulting Alora'a father, for the present," remarked the old gentleman, next morning. "The news would only worry him. You remember how very particular he was in charging me to guard his daughter's safety."
"Yes, and I know why," replied Mary Louise. "Alora has told me that if she is lost, strayed or stolen for sixty days, her father might be relieved of his guardianship and lose the income he enjoys. Now, I wonder, Gran'pa Jim, if Alora has purposely lost herself, with mischievous intent, so as to get rid of her father, whom she abhors?"
The Colonel considered this thoughtfully.
"I think not," he decided. "The girl is impulsive and at times reckless, and doubtless she would like to be free from her father's guardianship; but I am sure she is too fond of you, and has too much respect for me, to run away from us without a word. Besides, she has no money."
"Really," said Mary Louise despondently, "it is the strangest thing I ever knew."