“Ruth!” gasped Bab. “Bab!” uttered Ruth.
The two girls looked at each other in silence. Then Bab exclaimed: “It took my Mollie to make the discovery, after all!”
“What are you talking about, Barbara Thurston? What discovery have I made?” demanded Mollie.
“Ruth, do you think I had better tell the girls?” asked Bab.
Ruth nodded, and Barbara related the principal facts of the jewel robbery. She also told the girls that she and Ruth suspected that Harry Townsend had been the robber who frightened them at New Haven. “You remember,” Bab continued, “he was a guest at the hotel the same night we were, and left early the next morning. If he had one of the rooms under us, he could have climbed down the fire escape and into his own room before anyone could discover him.”
But Bab kept to herself that she and Ruth were expecting another burglary, and that she, Bab, was to play a part in bringing the thief to bay. Mollie and Grace would both be terribly frightened at the thought, but it was just as well that they knew enough not to be surprised at what was to follow.
Barbara went upstairs and wrote a note to the address in Newport that the detectives had given to her. It told the story just recited by Mollie.
“Ralph,” requested Barbara, sauntering slowly through the hall, “will you mail this at once with your own hands? Little Mollie has done the deed, after all. She has found the woman who receives Harry Townsend’s stolen goods!”
Ralph took the letter with an exclamation of surprise and hurried off to the post.