Barbara was silent. Then she shook her head. “I don’t know of anyone now,” she said. “You’ll have to give me time to think and watch.”
“All right, miss, and thank you. You can write a note to this address if you have anything to communicate.” One of the men handed her a card with the number of a Newport boarding house on it. “My name is Burton,” said the big man, “and my assistant is Rowley. We both came up from the New York office, and we’re at your service, miss.”
On the way home Barbara tried to make up her mind whether she ought to tell Miss Sallie what she was doing.
“I don’t think it best to tell her now,” she concluded. “She would only be worried and frightened to death. What is the good? Miss Sallie would be sure to think that girls did not hunt for jewel thieves in her day. And she’d probably think they ought not to hunt for them in my day,” Barbara confessed to herself, honestly. “I’ll just wait a while, and see how things develop. Now I am in this detective business, I might as well confess to myself that it is very interesting.”
Barbara walked slowly. “I wish Ruth would find out how things are going,” she thought to herself. “She is so shrewd and she already guesses I have something on my mind. But Ruth was so positive I was wrong about Harry Townsend, at Mrs. Erwin’s ball, that she would probably think I was wrong again. So the female detective will pursue her lonely way for a little while longer—and then, I just must tell some one,” Bab ended.
Miss Sallie and the girls were coming down-stairs to breakfast, when Bab entered at the front door. Miss Stuart was plainly displeased with Barbara’s explanation. “I couldn’t sleep very well, Miss Sallie,” said Barbara, “and I went out for a walk.” “That is partly true,” she reflected, “but half truths are not far from story-telling.”
“Well, I must ask you, Bab,” said Miss Sallie, in firm tones, “not to leave the house again in the morning, unless some one is with you. I was most uneasy.”
“Didn’t Mollie give you the note I left on the bureau to explain where I had gone?” inquired Bab.
“Mollie did not see the note until we were almost ready to come downstairs. Naturally, we did not understand your absence.”
“I am so sorry, Miss Sallie,” cried Bab. “I never will do it again.”