"Then we know he wasn't kidnaped until after four. And about eight
o'clock you were given a ransom note. That means the kidnapers were in
the neighborhood an hour ago. How did the note get here?"
"It was brought to me," said Mr. Foster.
"Who brought it?"
"Ira."
Dr. Stone's hand came out of his pocket without the tobacco pouch. Joe,
startled, saw his uncle's eyes turn, as though by instinct, toward the
hired man he could not see. Ira Close, always given to a dull, stupid
sullenness, shifted his thick-set, muscular body awkwardly.
"I sent him out to find Billy," Mr. Foster explained. "The boy had been
gone since four o'clock when he went out of the house with a plate of
food for his rabbits. I thought he might have gone trailing after that
organ-grinder----"
"What organ-grinder?" Dr. Stone asked sharply.
Again it was Captain Tucker who answered. "A stranger, doctor. Gave his
name as Pasquale Monetti. Came to the police station four days ago and
paid two dollars for a permit. Had a monkey on a chain. The kids have
been following him all over the village."