“Sally Barker isn’t a thief,” Penny retorted loyally. “By the way, how did you know why the girl was taken to the office?”
The question momentarily confused Joe. But his reply was glib enough.
“Oh, I have a way o’ knowin’ what goes on around here,” he smirked. “I figured that gal was light-fingered the day they hired her. It didn’t surprise me none that they found the stuff in her locker.”
“And who told you that?” Penny pursued the subject.
“Why, you said so yourself—”
“Oh, no I didn’t.”
“It was the forelady,” Joe corrected himself. “I seen the brass in her hand when she came out of the locker room with that gal.”
Disgusted, Penny turned her back and walked away in search of Jack. It was none of her affair, she knew, but it seemed to her that Joe the Sweeper had taken more than ordinary interest in Sally’s downfall. His statements, too, had been confused.
“I don’t trust that fellow,” she thought. “He’s sly and mean.”
Penny could not find Jack, and when she returned to Mr. Gandiss’ office, a secretary told her that the factory owner and her father expected to meet her at the main gate.