Mary Louise Solves a Mystery

by L. Frank Baum

  CHAPTER XVIIION THE TRAIL

  Josie O'Gorman loved mysteries for their own sake. She loved thembecause they required solutions, and to solve a mystery is not onlyinteresting but requires a definite amount of talent. Since she was awee thing perched on her father's knee, Officer O'Gorman had floodedher ears with the problems he daily encountered, had turned theproblems inside out and canvassed them from every possible viewpoint,questioning the child if this, or that, was most probable. By this oddmethod he not only enjoyed the society of his beloved daughter butargued himself, through shrewd reasoning, into a lucid explanation ofmany puzzling cases. To his pleased surprise, as little Josie grewolder she began to answer his questions, taking a part in hisprofessional arguments with himself, and from that time her training asa detective began.

  John O'Gorman had never been quite sure whether his fatherly adorationunduly influenced him or whether Josie was indeed an exceptionallytalented girl; so, having firmly determined to train her to become agirl detective, he had so far held her in leash, permitting her toinvestigate various private cases but refusing to place her inprofessional work--such as the secret service--until she had gainedexperience and acquired confidence in herself. Confidence was the onething Josie lacked most. She took her mistakes too much to heart.

  The girl was full of enthusiasm, however, and now meant to untangle themystery of Alora Jones if it were possible to do so, both to pleaseMary Louise and to enjoy the satisfaction of success. After saying goodnight to her friends, and before going to her own room, the girlwandered about the big hotel making casual inquiries and obtaining moreor less useful information. Afterward, she sat in her room and arrangedin her mind the complete history of Alora, so far as she was informedof it, and made notes of all facts which seemed to bear on the presentproblem.

  Next morning she inquired for the housekeeper and found that ladyseated in her little office on the third floor of the hotel.

  "I'm trying to trace one of the servants who left you Monday night, orearly Tuesday morning," she said, after informing the woman that shewas engaged in tracing the missing girl, Alora Jones. "I am not surewhat name you knew her by, but her real name was Gorham."

  "No one has left us this week," returned the housekeeper, who seemeddisposed to converse freely with her visitor.

  "Are you sure of that?"

  "Why, I'm positive. We treat our help well and they seldom leave us.I'm sure no woman employed in this hotel, down to the lowest kitchenscullion, has resigned or been discharged during the last few days."

  "And there is no one still in your service named Gorham?"

  "No one. It's an unusual name and I should have remembered it."

  "Do any of the guests ever use the servants' entrance?"

  "Certainly not. It is reserved exclusively for the employees. Some ofour guests have private maids, who occasionally use the rear entrances,and Mrs. Tolliver's trained nurses are allowed to pass out that way,too; but----"

  She stopped abruptly, as if some new thought had occurred to her.

  "What is it?" asked Josie, who was watching her face.

  "Why, I have just recollected that Mrs. Tolliver's night nurse did notshow up Tuesday evening, for some reason, and they were obliged totelephone for another."

  "Who is Mrs. Tolliver?"

  "One of our permanent guests, who is suffering just now from a severeattack of rheumatism. She employs two trained nurses, a day nurse and anight nurse."

  "And the night nurse left her post Tuesday morning and did not returnin the evening, as she was expected to do?"

  "That's it, miss. Mrs. Tolliver was greatly annoyed, but fortunatelyshe was able to secure another nurse at once."

  "What was the nurse's name--the one who abandoned her job withoutnotice?"

  "Let me see. It wasn't Gorham. I'll call Alice, my assistant; I feelquite sure that she will know."

  Alice promptly answered the bell and on being questioned said:

  "The nurse was Mrs. Orme. She'd been with Mrs. Tolliver ever since shewas took sick, and was the best nurse she's had."

  "Why did she leave?" asked Josie.

  "I don't know, miss, I'm sure. She were a quiet body, never sayin' muchto no one. But quite ladylike, she were, an' most of us liked her."

  "Can you describe her?"

  "Well, she isn't tall--not so very tall, you know--an' she's got a goodform an' good manners. I take it she's about thirty-five, an' handsomefor her age. Good eyes, but mostly looks down an' don't show 'em. Veryneat an' tidy. Brown hair. She wore gray clothes, you know--the reg'larnurse's uniform."

  "Do you know where Mrs. Orme lives?"

  "No, miss; haven't the faintest idea."

  "Who is Mrs. Tolliver's doctor?"

  "The house physician, Dr. Pease. His office is No. 633, in this hotel."

  "Thank you, Alice."

  Josie hunted up Mary Louise.

  "Have you ever heard that a trained nurse named Mrs. Orme is in any wayconnected with Alora's history?" she asked.

  "No; I'm pretty sure Alora has never mentioned such a person. Whatabout her, Josie?

  "I think Alora went away with her. Have you any description of MissGorham, the governess?"

  "Not especially," said Mary Louise, trying to remember. "Alora hassometimes referred to her as 'Old Skinny,' but that doesn't meananything."

  "It means she isn't Mrs. Orme, anyhow," answered Josie, in adisappointed tone.

  Mary Louise considered this in her usual careful way. She would like tohelp Josie, if she could.

  "Who do you suppose this Mrs. Orme could be?" she presently asked.

  "Some one whom Alora knew years ago, when her mother was alive. Ofcourse her name may not have been Orme, then, and she may not have beena trained nurse. That's why I was inclined to connect her with Gorham."

  "Wait a minute, Josie! A nurse, do you say? Why, I remember somethingabout a nurse, no--Alora's mother's nurse. When we were in Italy, whereI first knew Alora, she told me that her father, at one time when theylived in New York, had been forced to give money to a woman, and Alorabelieved he had left America to escape this person's further demands.When I asked who the woman was, she said it was her mother's nurse; butI'm pretty sure she didn't mention her name."

  Josie's freckled face now wore a broad smile.

  "How simple any enigma proves when you have the key," she remarked,with an air of relief. "The mystery is solved, my dear! It's all aseasy as A. B. C."

  "In that case," said Mary Louise, more mystified than ever, "kindlyoblige me with the key."

  "With pleasure. You haven't given me much time to forge a chain, soI'll add each link as it occurs to me. Mrs. Jones, during her lastillness, had a nurse; a good nurse, too, in whom she had confidence.When Mrs. Jones sent for her husband, from whom she had been estranged,the nurse was aware of the action. When the husband came--Alora'sfather--without doubt the nurse remained in the sick room during theinterview. Husband and wife quarreled, instead of making up--this guessis justified by the man's disagreeable disposition--and Mrs. Joneshastily wrote a codicil to her will and gave it into the nurse'skeeping, with instructions to deliver it to her lawyer. Then the poorlady over-excited, lay back and died, and the man Jason Jones--realizedthat his lack of diplomacy had euchred him out of a big income forseven years. But he put up a job with the nurse who held his fate inher hands in the shape of scrap of paper. If she'd give him thatcodicil--no! that isn't right--if she'd keep it to herself and not letanyone know of its existence, Mr. Jones proposed to give her a share ofthe money. She considered this easier than working and the bargain wasstruck. Isn't that a logical chain of events, so far, Mary Louise?"

  "But what a terrible thing to do, Josie!"

  "Yes, human nature in its worst aspect selfishness, greed,unscrupulousness--and still human nature. Well, the woman followed himto New York and got some of the money, as Alora said; but the nursewanted more, and was likely to bleed the man more liberally than heliked; so, being afraid of her, he ran away to Europe
. Nurse spent hermoney, couldn't find Jason Jones to get more, and so returned toChicago and practiced her profession again. Any dummy could figure thatout."

  "I cannot see," responded Mary Louise, "how that accounts for Alora'sdisappearance."

  "Why, of course the woman knew all about the terms of the will. She wasnursing a Mrs. Tolliver in this hotel when she discovered Alora'sarrival. How she discovered it doesn't matter. In the morning, when theday nurse arrived to take her place, she left Mrs. Tolliver and wentdirectly to Alora's room. The girl instantly recognized her and wouldprobably have a warm place in her heart for her mother's old nurse.Decided to walk part of the way home with her so they could talk overold times--you and the Colonel being still asleep--but was enticed tothe nurse's house and promptly locked up and held as a weapon to forceold Jones to pay up. This completes the chain. A woman who would enterinto such an ugly deal with Jason Jones as I have described would nothesitate to capture Alora, especially as it proved an easy thing todo."

  Mary Louise drew a long breath. "If I could believe that theory,Josie," she said, "it would relieve me of much worry, for I'd knowAlora is safe. But--what was it your father said about yourimagination?"

  Josie laughed. "This isn't wholly imagination, you goose, for it'sbased on a knowledge of human nature, as I've hinted. Also it's ascientific matching of the pieces in the puzzle. Why, Mary Louise, inthis deduction we have all the necessary elements of the usual crime. Awoman--always look for a woman in a mystery, my dear--money, the causeof four-fifths of all crimes, and a guilty man who is afraid of beingforced to disgorge his ill-gotten gains. Then we will add an innocentgirl who suffers through the machinations of others. Some of myconclusions may not be exactly correct, but in the main the story isabsolutely logical."

  "That's what you said last night, Josie, when you thought thegoverness, Gorham, had abducted Alora."

  "True, but I have later information which doesn't entirely upset thetheory but changes the actors in the drama. I don't say that furtherinvestigations may not alter this present plot in some of its details,but the main facts are too lucid and undeniable to get far away from.I'm now going to interview the house physician and get Mrs. Orme'saddress."

  When she had gone, Mary Louise went to Gran'pa Jim with the tale ofJosie's latest discoveries and Colonel Hathaway was so impressed by thetheory that he decided to telegraph Peter Conant to catch the noontrain and come straight to Chicago.

  "The complications suggested by Josie will require a lawyer's advice,"he said, "and Mr. Conant knows law and can advise us how to handle thecase when we have discovered where Alora is confined."

  Meanwhile Josie went to the doctor's office and after waiting sometime, was finally admitted to his private room.

  "I came to ask for the address of a trained nurse--a Mrs. Orme--whomyou recommended to Mrs. Tolliver," she began, her innocent eyesregarding the physician gravely.

  Dr. Pease frowned.

  "I cannot recommend her again," said he. "Although she's a good nurse,she is unreliable, and left my patient without notice when she wasbadly needed."

  "I merely want to find her," declared Josie. "I'm a stranger in townand I've a letter of introduction to Mrs. Orme."

  "I don't know her address. I got the woman through Dr. Anstruther."

  "Oh. May I telephone Dr. Anstruther, then?"

  "I've no objection. There's a telephone in the outer office. But you'renot likely to catch him much before noon. Dr. Anstruther is a very busyman."

  Josie went to her own room to telephone. She telephoned Dr.Anstruther's office at intervals all the morning, but did not succeedin getting him until nearly two o'clock. Then he answered that he didnot know Mrs. Orme's address, having always secured her servicesthrough the Sisters' Hospital.

  Josie tried the Sisters' Hospital and learned that Mrs. Orme lived inan apartment at 524 Morgan Avenue. She took a taxicab and drove there,determining to obtain an interview with the woman by posing as a nursewho desired assistance in securing employment. But disappointmentconfronted her. Mrs. Orme had moved from the apartment ten days ago andher present address was unknown.

  "She has taken considerable pains to cover her traces," said Josie toMary Louise, when she returned from her futile trip.

  "I hope you're not discouraged, dear," returned Mary Louise anxiously."The local detectives have done nothing at all, so you are our onlyhope, Josie."

  The embryo detective smiled sweetly.

  "I'm not here on a pleasure trip," she said, "although I enjoy traveland good hotel fodder as well as anyone. This is business, but so farI'm just feeling my way and getting a start. You can't open a mysteryas you do a book, Mary Louise; it has to be pried open. The very factthat this Mrs. Orme has so carefully concealed her hiding-place isassurance that she's the guilty party who abducted Alora. Beingpositive of that, it only remains to find her--not an impossibility, byany means--and then we shall have no difficulty in liberating herprisoner."

  "But to find her; can you do that, Josie?"

  "Certainly, with a little help from the police, which they will gladlyfurnish. They know I'm Daddy's daughter, for I have already introducedmyself to them, and while they may be slow to take the initiative theyare always quite willing to aid in an affair of this sort. Now, itstands to reason, Mary Louise, that the nurse didn't use the streets topromenade with. Alora. That would have been dangerous to her plans.There are so few people abroad in Chicago at six o'clock in the morningthat those who met the two would have noted and remembered them. Forthe same reason Mrs. Orme did not take a street car, or the elevated.Therefore, she took a cab, and the cabman who drove them will know Mrs.Orme's address."

  "But who was the cabman?" asked Mary Louise.

  "That," said Josie, "is to be my next discovery."