He doffed his cap, and was just starting the motor of his cycle when the girl called to him.
“I quite forgot to thank you for your timely assistance,” she said, giving him a gracious smile, which did a lot to atone for her evident anxiety to have him depart. “I assure you that I am very grateful.
“I live in Oldham,” she went on. “If you would care to call on us, I am sure my uncle, with whom I live, would be glad of the opportunity to add his thanks to mine. My name is Melba Gale, and——”
“Gale!” the Camera Chap repeated, speaking more to himself than to the girl. “That must be merely a coincidence, of course. Surely you are no relative of Gale, of the News?[Pg 42]”
“Do you mean the New York Daily News?” the girl inquired, some astonishment in her tone. “I have a cousin who for several years has been a reporter on that paper. It is with his family that I am living. I am an orphan, and my Uncle Delancey’s house has been my home ever since I was three years old. Do you know my cousin?” she asked, looking at him keenly.
“I have met him,” the Camera Chap replied evasively.
“In New York?”
“Yes.”
“Then, perhaps you can tell me,” the girl began. Then she broke off suddenly as, glancing over her shoulder, she caught sight of a young man mounted on a bicycle who was approaching from the direction of Oldham.
It needed only one glance at her flushed, radiant face to tell Hawley that this was the lucky man who was expected.