“Undoubtedly, Patsy, and I’ll wager that she will not slip through our fingers as elusively as in the two previ[Pg 18]ous cases,” Nick grimly predicted. “It was her boast, you remember, that she was too clever to be caught in the clutches of the law.”
“She will have slipped a cog this time, all right, if we can lay hands on her.”
“That is what we should set about doing, Nick, it strikes me,” Chick suggested. “We surely ought to be able to pick up her trail, or that of the woman who pretended to faint and gave you the name of Margaret Hanson.”
“That is precisely what we must do,” Nick agreed. “The two women were confederates. They accomplished the abduction by means of that trick, and the ease with which Kate Crandall could lure the Madden child away. It’s long odds that they had a motor car, too, for they would not have ventured undertaking to get away with her on foot. They must, in that case, have had a chauffeur, so we can bank on at least one man in the job, and very probably more.”
“That boy also must have been in it, chief, or he would not have bolted,” added Patsy. “He would have waited to find out whether the woman recovered, if he was on the level and really thought she had fainted.”
“Very true, Patsy, and there is one probable fact of which we can take advantage.”
“What’s that, chief?”
“The woman who fainted has auburn hair, the boy red hair,” said Nick. “It’s a safe assumption, then, that they are mother and son.”
“Gee! that’s right, too.”
“And there are comparatively few red-headed women with a red-headed son about ten years of age in greater New York, even,” Nick added. “Inquiries at each of the precinct police stations, therefore, may enable us to locate the couple. If they live in the city, which is highly probable, some patrolman should be able to identify them.”