“I don’t make much of it, Patsy, at present,” his chief frankly admitted. “There must be a very potent cause for the reticence of all four girls and for their obvious wish to remain in the background.”
“Sure thing. That goes without saying.”
“It’s barely possible that they are in league with crooks who were responsible for what befell them, and that they do not dare to come forward and tell the truth.”
“Mebbe so, chief,” Patsy nodded.
“On the other hand, the whole business may be the work of some exceedingly keen and clever rascal who, alone and with some ulterior object in view, has been experimenting with these girls and paving the way to a much more knavish project,” the detective added. “If that is correct, it’s a hundred to one that he is the unknown crook who committed the mysterious robberies mentioned by Gleason, and whom he is so anxious to round up.”
“By Jove, there may be something in that!” Chick said quickly. “It appears to be the most probable explanation.”
“I think so, too.”
“But what are your plans, chief?” asked Patsy earnestly. “How are we to pick up a trail worth following?”
“By finding that girl who said her name was Mabel Smith,” the chief replied pointedly. “That must be done, to begin with, and then we’ll go a step further.”
“But how can we trace her?”