The colonel admitted that it did look so.
“Now, assuming that this letter was sent with the connivance of the kidnappers, it looks as if our young gentleman wasn’t in any particular danger of having a hard time. To me, it looks pretty certain he must have skipped himself; tolled along someway, maybe, but not making any resistance. Now, is there anybody that you know who has enough influence over him for that? How about the lady’s maid?”
“Randall has been a faithful servant for twenty years, a middle-aged, serious-minded, decent woman. Out of the question.”
“This Miss Smith, your aunt’s companion, who is she? Do you know?”
“A South Carolinian; good family; she has lived with my aunt as secretary and companion for a year; my aunt is very fond of her.”
“That all you know? Well I have found out a little more; she used to live with a Mrs. James S. Hastings, a rich Washington woman. The lady’s only son fell in love with her; somehow the marriage was broken off.”
“What was his name?”
“Lawrence. They call him Larry. He went to Manila. Maybe you’ve met him there.”
“Yes, I knew him; I don’t believe he ever was accepted by her.”
“I don’t know. I have only had two days on her biography. Later, she went to Johns Hopkins Hospital. One of the doctors was very attentive to her—but it did not come to anything. She didn’t graduate. Don’t know why. Then she went to live with Miss Angela Nelson, who died and left her money, away from her own family. There was talk of breaking the will; but it wasn’t done. Then she came to Mrs. Winter.”