“You’d better speak politer than that, Montmorency Shannon, or I’ll tell your mother,” she declared. “Miss Jessie and Miss Amy have come visiting me. They have to be treated nice.”
“All right,” laughed the boy. “When I get my radio rigged they can come down here and listen in on it.”
Jessie thanked the rusty-haired boy, but she was by no means satisfied. She and Amy went around among the houses, convoyed by Henrietta, and were introduced to several of the housewives that they had not met before. Of course they spent some time with Mrs. Foley, and Jessie asked particularly about Charlie who appeared to have got a job. He was old enough to work. The Roselawn girl could not bring herself to the point of discussing the lost watch directly with any of these people. She did not know which child to suspect—if any.
But when she and Amy had bade their acquaintances of Dogtown good-by and were walking up the long lane toward Bonwit Boulevard, Jessie noticed that her chum was very grave.
“Why the seriosity, Amy?” she asked, smiling quizzically.
“Jess, I am puzzled,” admitted the other girl.
“So am I. Are you puzzled about the same thing I am?”
“That red-haired boy!” exclaimed Amy vigorously. “He’s awfully smart. And he is just as poverty-stricken as the other Dogtown kids, you know he is.”
“Well?”
“Then how is he going to get a fifteen dollar radio set? I want to ask you! Isn’t that a very suspicious thing, Jessie, to your mind?”