“Positively! But I cannot tell whose voice. I am absolutely sure, nevertheless, that I have heard it before.”
“Not Margaret Hanson’s voice?”
“No.”
“Some other woman, then, may have got away with the child. It may have been her voice.”
“That is precisely what I suspect,” said Nick. “Is Amy a child, Mr. Madden, who would readily go with a stranger?”
“No, no; quite the contrary,” Mr. Madden quickly assured him. “She is very shy of strangers, and has been repeatedly cautioned against having anything to do with them out of doors.”
“That may help us materially,” said Nick.
“How so?”
“It would have been exceedingly risky to have abducted her by force,” Nick explained. “A scream from the child would have been heard in half a dozen directions. It is ten to one, therefore, that she was abducted by some person with whom she is acquainted, perhaps of whom she is fond, even, and by whom she could easily have been influenced. Do you know of any woman, Mr. Madden, who would be guilty of such a crime?”
“No, indeed, I do not,” he replied, after racking his brain for several moments. “Bear in mind, Nick, that Amy is only six years of age, also that my wife has been dead nearly two years, and that I since have had very few women visitors. I really know of none by whom the child could have been lured away—surely none capable of committing such a crime.”