“That’s what you said. I didn’t see her.”
“Red, too.”
I couldn’t understand it. It would seem on first thought that the beauty soap was a fake. Still, it couldn’t be a fake, I told myself. For in [[216]]the dressmaker’s case, and in Red’s case, too, it had done all that was claimed for it.
We had wondered what the soap man’s purpose was in coming to the old hotel. We had thought, at first, that he knew something about the ghost. But now we quickly concluded that he had been selling soap in the neighborhood, and had stopped at the hotel to fix up a supply of soap for the coming day’s business. There was nothing in his actions that would suggest that he knew about the ghost. His thoughts were wholly on his work.
The traveling bag that he had brought into the hotel was on the floor directly behind him. Getting a closer look at the bag, I was convinced beyond all doubt, and so was Scoop, that it was Gennor’s bag. How it had come into the soap man’s possession we couldn’t imagine. But here it was. And we were determined to get it.
Scoop pulled a piece of fishline out of his pocket.
“If we had a hook,” he grinned, “we could do some fishing.”
“Anything you want,” I grinned back, “just ask me for it,” and I dug up a piece of wire. I don’t know why I had the wire in my pocket along with my other truck. But, lucky for us, it was there. [[217]]
Fastening the bent wire to the fishline, Scoop let the hook down, swinging it slowly back and forth, trying to hook the handle of the traveling bag.
“Be careful,” I grinned, “and don’t hook old soapy’s wig.”