JOSIE O’GORMAN’S TRIUMPH
Obedient to Josie’s telegram, Ursula took the first train from Dorfield
for Louisville. The Conants wanted her to leave Ben in their care, but
she could not bear to be parted from him and he felt that he must take
care of his sister and must be with her all the time.
“Josie wouldn’t have sent for me unless she felt sure it was necessary,
and what is important to me is important to Ben,” she declared as she
thanked her friends.
“Josie will meet us, I am sure,” she said to Ben as they neared their
destination.
At a junction not far from Louisville, the coach from Dorfield
was joined to the Cincinnati express. At the same junction the
accommodation train that Josie and little Philip had boarded so
hurriedly had been tied up for reasons best known to the train
dispatchers and after a long, long wait, the passengers were
transferred to the express.
“Plenty of room in the forward coach, miss,” the brakeman said to
Josie, and the astute female detective, all unconscious of what waited
her in the forward coach, walked innocently in, holding her charge by
the hand, and there sat Ursula and Ben.
A love feast followed, Ursula smiling happily as she hugged little
Philip to her bosom. It was such a wonderful denouement to the
kidnaping that Josie was sorry to have to confess that she had not
planned it.
“I never dreamed this was the Dorfield train,” she said. “Philip and I
were dumped at this junction and all I knew was that we were on our way
to Louisville and would get there sometime.”
She had so much to tell Ursula, and Ursula had so much to tell her, and
Philip had so much to say about his wanderings, that the station at
Louisville was reached all too soon.
Teddy was there waiting for them, his eyes aglow with a new light as
Ursula stepped from the train.
At the same time, from the forward coach, two men and a woman alighted
on the platform. They were Cheatham, Miss Fitchet and her brother.
All of them were angry. Cheatham was trying to pacify Miss Fitchet,
who was violently accusing him of having abducted little Philip. He
in his turn was eying Bill with disfavor, feeling sure that he was in
some way responsible for the disappearance of the boy. Never having
heard of Miss Fitchet’s having a brother until they boarded the moving
train at Cincinnati and burst in upon him with violent invective and
vituperation, it was but natural for him to be suspicious of the two.
Still it behooved him to endeavor to calm the woman, as she already
knew too much about his underhand operations for it to be safe for him
to make an enemy of her.
All unconscious of the happy group at the far end of the platform, the
three persons united by villainy and divided by distrust approached.
Bill was the first to see Philip.
“Yonder’s the brat, you hound!” he cried out in a rage. “So you had him
on the train with you all the time! But we’ve trapped you.”
Miss Fitchet was quick to see that Ursula had hold of her little
brother’s hand and at the same moment Mr. Cheatham realized that
standing by her were Teddy Trask, Ben and, strange to say, the silly
little flapper person who had talked to him on the way up to Cincinnati
only that morning.
Looking down the long platform, Ursula saw the sinister trio. Her
instinct was to clasp her little brother to her heart and run, but a
fine something that was in the girl made her stand up and, with head
erect and eyes flashing, face the persons who had caused her as bitter
hours as could be spent by the innocent.
“That man with Mr. Cheatham and Miss Fitchet is the one who brought
the note to me; I recognize the man I saw coming up the street,” she
whispered to Josie.
“He’s the one she calls Bill,” said Philip. “He wrote the note, ’cause
I saw him doin’ it. You ain’t gonter let them take me away again, are
you, Sister?”
Teddy picked the boy up and put him on his shoulder.
“Now you are bigger than anybody,” he said, “and you need never be
afraid any more.”
Josie was a generous antagonist and she could not help feeling sorry
for Cheatham. He looked like a whipped hound as he approached them,
cringing pitiably. He must make an effort and try to appear at his
ease.
He whispered to Miss Fitchet: “Go on! Take your brother and pretend we
are not together.”
“I’ll do no such thing,” she answered, showing her teeth like a
snarling tiger. “The jig’s up and you are to take the blame, so watch
your step.”
Cheatham tried to think quickly. Should he pass Ursula without
recognition? What should he do? He could not turn tail and run, as he
would have liked to do. If it were not for the hateful Fitchet and her
rowdy brother he might have faced the situation. How could he explain
his conduct to Teddy Trask? How could his stepdaughter have found her
brother and got him away from their clutches? What had that colorless
Miss Friend to do with it all? Why had she gone to Cincinnati by one
train and returned to Louisville by the next? What proof would they
have that he had been implicated in the kidnaping?
Such thoughts brought him up to where Ursula stood, with her two good
friends and her brothers. Evidently she would leave it to him whether
or not speech was to pass between them. She moved not a muscle, but
stood with erect head and flashing eyes, as if about to pass judgment
on a criminal.
Josie broke the spell by saying: “Ah, Mr. Cheatham, so we came back on
the same train! If I had only known! Wasn’t it wonderful, too, that I
met my dear friend Ursula Ellett on the train? Such a sweet girl! It
was so fortunate that quite by chance I ran across her little brother
at the Hotel Haddon.
“You see, I went to the Alpha, directly across the street. When you
told me you were going to the Haddon I didn’t like to go there, too,
because you might have thought I was pursuing you, and far be it from
me to give any man that impression, but since you had assured me the
neighborhood was respectable, I just stopped at the Alpha.
“I saw little Philip peeping out of the second-story window, and as
I knew his sister was very uneasy about him, I gave up my date in
Cincinnati and just brought him along with me. You see, Miss Ellett and
I are very dear friends. In fact, we are partners in a little business
in Dorfield. She runs the tea room and I do the washing and dabble a
bit in detective work.”
All of this chatter Josie got off without drawing breath, and with
the mincing manners of a very silly young person. Teddy found himself
laughing and Ursula could not help giggling, in spite of the deep
emotion that was mastering her.
Josie continued: “This is Miss Fitchet, I take it, and her brother,
known as Bill? This gentleman, I understand, was in Dorfield only last
night, where he went to deliver a letter to Miss Ellett. He got off
the train at Dorset instead of Dorfield and there got a lift from a
country doctor who was riding in an old-fashioned car of the vintage
of 1912. He left the doctor without saying ‘thank you’ and boarded a
freight train going west. The letter he delivered to Miss Ellett is
very incriminating.”
At these words the man called Bill turned and began to run, but his
course took him directly into the arms of a big policeman, who held him
tightly until he could give an account of himself.
“I reckon you’d better hold on to him, Captain, for a while,” said
Josie. “He might be needed.”
At the mention of a letter having been sent to Ursula, Mr. Cheatham
looked very much mystified. He turned on Miss Fitchet.
“What does this mean?”
“I reckon it means there is double-crossing going on. What do you want
to do about these people, Ursula?” asked Josie.
“Oh, let them all go,” said the girl. “I have my baby back and that is
all that makes any difference.”
“Yes, that is all that makes much difference,” said Teddy Trask, “but
I think you’d better not let them get away until you have a business
understanding with your stepfather. If you will employ me as your
attorney, I’ll attend to that.”
“I do, I do!” With Ursula’s response, Teddy Trask swung into action.
“All right then. Mr. Cheatham, I shall ask you to be in my office
to-morrow morning at nine o’clock. You had best not attempt to get
out of this or I shall have to advise Uncle Sam concerning certain
tampering with mails. Letters addressed to Miss Ursula Ellett from her
Uncle Ben Benson, and from an attorney in Kimberly, have been held by
you and unlawfully opened.”
“I--I--could not forward mail to my stepdaughter when I did not know
her address,” stammered Cheatham.
“Your confederate, Miss Fitchet, saw Miss Ellett in Dorfield in
November. The police of that town have a record of her having been in
Dorfield at that time, immediately after Mr. Benson wrote to Ursula.
His letter is now in my possession, so you need not worry to look it
up. I also hold the will of the late Mr. Benson and will expect to
see the representative from the firm of Toler & Smith, who will be in
Louisville shortly, so I understand.
“I shall ask you in the morning to account in full for the estate of
the late Philip Ellett. What belongs to the children you have defrauded
shall be returned to them unless you are willing to spend some twenty
years behind the bars.
“As for you,” and Teddy Trask turned on Miss Fitchet, who had been
rather enjoying the ragging her employer was undergoing, “you had
best be very quiet and behave very well. You have been guilty of a
great crime and it rests with Miss Ellett whether or not you shall be
punished for it. The police in Louisville have you under surveillance,
so you need not hope to escape if it is desirable to keep you.”
“Anything more?” asked Cheatham sullenly.
“Yes, don’t trust silly flappers with the name of the hotel where you
expect to stop,” said Josie, in her natural voice and manner, which
were in startling contrast to the one which she had hitherto used in
addressing Cheatham.
Turning to the abashed nurse, Josie said: “As for you, Miss Fitchet,
when you are running off with poor little boys and almost breaking
their sisters’ hearts, don’t pass by fires where the camera man is no
doubt on his job. News reels are quickly developed and on the screen.
If I had not seen you on the screen, dragging poor little Philip along
the sidewalk near where the big fire was on Christmas morning in
Cincinnati, I might have taken much longer to trace you. I say ‘thank
goodness for the movies.’ Also please let me add that the world would
have more respect for all of you if you could realize that there should
be honor among thieves.”
Transcriber’s Note:
Spelling, hyphenation and punctuation have been retained as
they appear in the original publication, except as follows:
Page 45
said Ursula, looking up from her work.” _changed to_
said Ursula, looking up from her work.
Page 58
her mother and father and her brother? _changed to_
her mother and father and her brother!
Page 68
she could not help but feeling _changed to_
she could not help but feel
Page 80
mule cyars uster fotch th _changed to_
mule cyars uster fotch th’
Page 84
vitamines but she had a genius _changed to_
vitamins but she had a genius
Page 156
She rememberd that his shoes had but _changed to_
She remembered that his shoes had but
Page 163
go back the way it came. So long! _changed to_
go back the way it came. So long!”
Page 176
“Josie had felt it wise _changed to_
Josie had felt it wise