“And it is my guess,” said Ida, “that the woman who wrote this letter is not the woman that Ellison is mixed up with, but is a woman who is in love with Ellison and who wants to get the other woman in trouble.”
“How in the world do you figure that out?” asked Chick.
“I don’t figure it out,” said Ida. “I’m guessing, like Patsy.”
She looked up at Nick and laughed as she continued:
“It is a guess based on my understanding of my own sex.”
“It is something to pay attention to,” said Nick, “especially in a case so dark and difficult as this is. But, Ida, if we are to guess on the probable actions of women, we could do a great deal more guessing.”
“As for instance, how?” asked Ida.
“We might guess that the woman who writes to us wishes to strike the one Ellison married to-day, and that the job put up was to prevent the marriage taking place, but that it miscarried.”
“Oh, if you’re going to guess,” said Chick, “you can guess anything, but the real thing is to find the writer of these letters as a beginning.”
“See here, chief,” said Patsy, “are not we losing sight of one thing in thinking only of this mysterious disappearance?”