“Not alone possible, but probable,” declared Robert Norwood. “Jessie, I am glad that you are so observant. I want you to get the little girl from Dogtown some day soon and let me talk with her. Perhaps she can tell me something about her cousin’s looks that will clinch the matter. At least, she can tell us her cousin’s full name, I have no doubt.”
“It’s Bertha for a first name,” said Jessie, eagerly. “And I supposed it was Haney, like Henrietta’s.”
“The girl I am looking for is not named Haney, whatever her first name may be. Anyway, it is a chance, and I mean to get to the bottom of this mysterious kidnaping if I can, Jessie. Let me see this little Henrietta who kills snakes with such admirable vigor,” and he laughed.
It was, however, no inconsiderable matter, as Jessie well understood. In the morning she hurried over to the Drew house to tell Amy about 123 it. Both had been interested from the very beginning in the mystery of the strange girl and her two women captors. There was something wrong with those women. Amy said this with a serious shake of her head. You could tell!
And when, on further discussion, Jessie remembered their names—Poole and Bothwell—this fact brought out another discovery.
“Bothwell! I never did!” ejaculated Amy Drew. “Why, no wonder I thought she looked like somebody I knew. And she drives a fast car—I’ll say she does. Jess Norwood! where were our wits? Don’t you remember reading about Sadie Bothwell, whose husband was one of the first automobile builders, and she has driven in professional races, and won a prize—a cup, or something? And her picture was in the paper.”
“That is the person Daddy refers to,” Jessie agreed. “I did not like her at all.”
“Ho! I should say not!” scoffed Amy. “And I wasn’t in love with the fat woman. So she is a race track follower, is she?” Then Amy giggled. “I guess she wouldn’t follow ’em far afoot! She isn’t so lively in moving about.”
“But where do you suppose they took Bertha—if it was Henrietta’s cousin we saw carried off?”
“Now, dear child, I am neither a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter nor––”