“Suppose you tell me a little about her, and then I–and my friends–can decide whether the woman we met is the one pictured there,” and Cora passed the photograph to Bess.
“There isn’t much to tell,” said the keeper of the light, slowly. “My sister is a widow. After her husband died she went to Westport to work in an office. She had been a clerk before her marriage. Everything seemed to go well for a time and she occasionally wrote to me how much she liked it. A friend of hers was in the same building.
“Then my sister’s letters ceased suddenly. I got worried and wrote to her friend. I got an answer, saying there had been a robbery in the office where my sister worked, and that my sister had disappeared. A young girl left at the same time, and there was some doubt about the robbery, though two men were mentioned as being concerned in it. But my poor sister must have felt that they would suspect her–and she never would take a pin belonging to anyone else. But she went away, and I’ve tried all means to locate her, but I can’t. It has me worried to death, nearly.”
“What was your sister’s name?” asked Cora.
“Margaret Raymond.”
“That is the same woman!” spoke Cora, firmly. “Oh, to think we didn’t ask her more about herself!”
By degrees she and the other girls told the story of the woman in the burning barn. They did not so much as hint of their first suspicions about the fire.
“And what was the name of the girl who worked in the office with her?” asked Belle.
“Nancy Ford,” answered Mr. Haley.
“There can be no doubt of it,” declared Cora. “That settles it. What a coincidence! That we should find her brother here!”