BOB DULANEY RETURNS THE NOTEBOOK
The next day the shop was doing a thriving business. Josie was busily
engaged in hunting up information concerning the best method to pursue
when contemplating taking a donkey trip through Spain for a middle aged
lady who had saved money for the venture and was determined to have the
trip in spite of discouraging friends; Elizabeth was touching up a club
paper on extra foraneous ornamentation; and Irene, who had been sent
for in a hurry to do some smocking, had just wheeled herself from the
dumb-waiter, produced her thimble and gone to work.
Hortense Markle came into the shop looking, as usual, fresh as the
dawn and her eyes sparkling like dew drops. Josie looked at her almost
pityingly. It seemed so sad to her that anyone who looked so charming
could be so wicked.
“I have brought some trifling little gew-gaws that Felix and I have
picked up at various times in our travels, thinking you young
merchants might have some sale for them. They are of no great value,
but there is no use in keeping such things around the house when one no
longer cares for them,” she said, opening a package she carried. “Would
you care to try to sell them?”
“Sure, we would,” answered Josie. “We are expecting to go into that
kind of business a good deal. Are the things antiques?”
“Some of them! Here is a cameo brooch that is really quite pretty,
but I am not the cameo brooch type. I can’t imagine what made Felix
take--buy--such a thing.” Josie noticed the little slip but her
expressionless face gave no clue to her thoughts. “Here is a chain,
quite pretty, and a locket too.”
There were various trinkets, all of them accepted by the girls and a
price agreed upon for them. They were to receive a commission on the
sales.
“I have some rugs too that we don’t want,” continued Hortense. “Would
you like them? Perhaps you might buy them outright and make quite a
pretty penny on them.”
“Send them around and we will see about it,” said Josie. “Are they
handsome?”
“Yes, quite fine! Felix thinks they are prettier than the ones we
are using but I have a fancy for the old ones to which I have grown
accustomed.”
Irene and Elizabeth listened to the above conversation with feelings
of mingled astonishment and amusement. Life for those girls was very
interesting during the days while the net was slowly closing around the
unconscious Markles. They could not help feeling sorry for them, but at
the same time disgust at Hortense’s perfidy was uppermost in the minds
of the girls who had led quiet sheltered lives themselves.
“Tell me, Miss O’Gorman, has young Mr. Dulaney ever brought back your
father’s notebook, and could he make head or tail of the pot-hooks?”
asked Hortense, pretending to be very nonchalant.
“No, not yet, but he was to get to it last evening,” answered Josie.
“But here he is now.”
Bob Dulaney came in the shop looking decidedly perturbed.
“Oh, Miss O’Gorman, I am worried stiff,” he cried, taking in the other
occupants with a general bow. “I can’t bear to meet you, but I must
have it over with. Do you know something has happened to the book you
lent me, your father’s notebook, I mean. I have not had it out of my
possession since you handed it to me, in my breast pocket all the time
and when my coat was not on my back it was hanging on a chair by my
bed. I have not had time to open the little book until last night.
Then I untied the hard knot of the ribbons and found the book filled
with nothing but blank pages. I can’t account for it. Certainly when
you showed it to us when you moved in, it had ciphered notes in it. I
remember well that you untied the strings and the pages were covered
close with hieroglyphics. You put it back on the shelves tightly tied
up and I fancy it had not been opened since. In fact, I think you said
it had not when you lent it to me.”
It was difficult for Josie to pretend to the perturbed young man, but
she felt she must keep up the farce before the watchful Hortense. She
devoutly hoped Irene and Elizabeth could hold on to themselves. She
could plainly see they were excited and that Irene was filled with pity
for poor Bob.
“It is too bad,” said Josie with as cold a voice as she could muster.
“I should not have let the book get out of my possession. Of course,
I don’t know myself what was in it, never having had time to dig out
the meaning since my father died, but I understood from him that
the information in it would be of the greatest value for the secret
service.”
“I know it--but oh, Miss O’Gorman, I can’t tell you how I feel
about it. I’m so miserable. I’m going to see a detective about it
immediately. I don’t see how it happened, or who could have known even
that I had it. Could it have been done before I took it?”
“Well, hardly,” spoke up Hortense with something of a sneer. “I was
here when Miss O’Gorman gave it to you and she remarked at the time
that--”
“Well, there is no use in crying over spilt milk, as my father used to
say,” interrupted Josie. “I have learned a lesson and that is perhaps
as worth while as the information detectives may have gained from the
book--that is, not to lend too promiscuously.”
Irene turned away her face. She felt so sorry for Bob she could not
bear to look at him. She felt Josie was carrying the thing too far, but
she knew she must keep out of the discussion. If she could only let
Bob know that she trusted him.
“I am so sorry! That is all I can say,” and Bob turned to go. “Good-by,
all of you. I fancy you won’t want to see me in your shop any more.”
“Oh, well, we may have to see you to try and clear up this matter,”
said Josie, brusquely. She followed him to the door and out into the
hall. Her manner suddenly changed.
“Shh!” she warned. “It is all right. Don’t worry a minute. I have the
notes all safe. You must forgive me for being so rude. Don’t ask any
questions now but come back in a few minutes. Wait across the street
until you see Mrs. Markle is gone, or better still, go to the back of
the house and come up in the elevator and wait there until she is out
of the house. We need your help. Understand?”
“No, but it is all right if you say so,” was Bob’s relieved reply.
“Well, young man, you come back here as soon as the coast is clear
and, if you are sharp, you are going to assist in the biggest haul of
fourflushers of this century. Also, you are going to get the scoop
of your life for your paper. But don’t move without letting me
know.” With that Josie turned back the collar of her middy blouse and
disclosed a badge that made Bob whistle.
The young man carried down those old stairs a much lighter heart than
he had carried up.
“Who would have thought it?” he muttered. “A chip of the old block,
that’s sure--but what has the beautiful Mrs. Markle to do with it? Gee!
But life is interesting!”
When Josie went back in the shop, Hortense began with a bitter
invective against Bob Dulaney. Of course, he had purloined the notes.
He very well knew their value and was simply trying to pull the wool
over Josie’s eyes. Empty and blank papers indeed! She had seen the
sheets all covered with notes with her own eyes and had seen Josie
tie the ribbons around the little book in the hardest kind of a knot.
Dulaney had simply sold them to some collector. For her part she had
no faith in him. Why didn’t Josie send for the police? Josie told her
perhaps she would but, after all, she doubted the papers being so very
valuable. She only prized them for sentimental reasons. Irene sat like
a frozen girl during the conversation. She longed for Hortense to go,
which she did soon, and then Bob came whizzing up in the dumb-waiter
and there was general rejoicing in the Higgledy-Piggledy Shop.
“We must lie very low and keep very quiet,” warned Josie. “Remember we
are all novices and dealing with hardened criminals. We must not make
the mistake the Markles are making in underestimating the intelligence
of our opponents. Father always said to give the enemy credit for
having more sense and ingenuity than you possess yourself and try to
make up for your possible lack by eternal vigilance. Do you realize,
Elizabeth, that our shop has been drawn into this net, that we are
receivers of stolen goods? Every one of these trinkets has been stolen,
also the rugs she is to send up on approval. Of course, she hopes we
will buy them outright and hand over the money in case she and her
rascally husband may have to vamoose in a hurry. We will keep her
waiting for a few days, eh, partner Elizabeth?”