I
OF course the instinct of the police and detectives was to run down
their game. That was natural. They seemed astonished and contemptuous
when I urged that all I wanted was my baby; whether the kidnappers
were ever caught or not made no difference to me. They kept arguing
that unless precautions were taken the criminals would escape and
I kept arguing that if they became suspicious of a trap they would
keep away and my only chance to recover our little girl would be gone
forever. They finally agreed and I believe they kept their promise to
me. Helen always felt the other way and maintained that their watchers
frightened off whoever was to meet me. Anyhow I waited in vain, waited
for hours, waited again the next day and the next and the next. We put
advertisements in countless papers, offering rewards and immunity, but
never heard anything more.
I pulled myself together in a sort of a way and tried to do my work. My
partner and clerks were very kind. I don’t believe I ever did anything
properly in those days, but no one ever brought any blunder to my
attention. If they came across any they set it right for me. And at the
office it was not so bad. Trying to work was good for me. It was worse
at home and worse at night. I slept hardly at all.
Helen, if possible, slept less than I. And she had terrible spasms of
sobs that shook the bed. She would try to choke them down, thinking I
was asleep and she might wake me. But she never went through a night
without at least one frightful paroxysm of tears.
In the daylight she controlled herself better, made a heart-breaking
and yet heart-warming effort at her normal cheeriness over the
breakfast things, and greeted me beautifully when I came home. But the
moment we were alone for the evening she would break down.
I don’t know how many days that sort of thing kept up. I sympathized
in silence. It was Helen herself who suggested that we must force
ourselves to be diverted, somehow. The theater was out of the question.
Not merely the sight of a four-year-old girl with yellow locks threw
Helen into a passion of uncontrollable sobbing, but all sorts of
unexpected trifles reminded her of Amy and affected her almost as much.
Confined to our home we tried cards, chess and everything else we could
think of. They helped her as little as they helped me.
Then one afternoon Helen did not come to greet me. Instead as I came in
I heard her call, quite in her natural voice.
“Oh, I’m so glad that is you. Come and help me.”
I found her seated at the library table, her back to the door. She had
on a pink wrapper and her shoulders had no despondent droop, but a
girlish alertness. She barely turned her head as I entered, but her
profile showed no signs of recent weeping. Her face was its natural
color.
“Come and help me,” she repeated. “I can’t find the other piece of the
boat.”
She was absorbed, positively absorbed in a picture puzzle.
In forty seconds I was absorbed too. It must have been six minutes
before we identified the last piece of the boat. And then we went on
with the sky and were still at it when the butler announced dinner.
“Where did you get it?” I asked, over the soup, which Helen really ate.
“Mrs. Allstone brought it,” Helen replied, “just before lunch.”