Chapter XIV: A Strange Request

"But, Lucile!" exclaimed Florence in an excited whisper, springing up in her bed after she had heard Lucile's story. "How did the police know that something was going wrong in that house? How did they come to be right there when you needed them most?"

"That's just what I asked the sergeant," answered Lucile, "and he just shrugged his shoulders and said, 'Somebody tipped it off.'"

"Which meant, I suppose, that someone reported the fact to police headquarters that something was wrong in that house."

"I suppose so."

"Is that all you know about it?"

"Why, I--I thought I heard someone hurrying away on the sidewalk just as I was going to enter."

"You don't suppose--"

"Oh, I don't know what to suppose," Lucile gave a short, hysterical laugh. "It is getting to be much too complicated for me. I can't stand it much longer. Something's going to burst. I think all the time that someone is dogging my tracks. I think someone must suspect me of being in league with this old man and the child."

"But if they did, why should they call the police for your protection?"

"Yes, why? Why? A whole lot of whys. And who would suspect me? I would trust Frank Morrow to keep faith with me. I am sure he trusts me fully. The Portland chart book affair I was not in at all. The bindery would scarcely suspect me. There's only our own library left. You don't think--"

"One scarcely knows what to think," said Florence wearily. "We sometimes forget that we are but two poor girls who are more or less dependent on the university for our support while we secure an education. Perhaps you should have confided in the library authorities in the beginning."

"Perhaps. But it's too late now. I must see the thing through."

"You don't believe the old Frenchman's story."

"I don't know. It's hard to doubt it. He seems so sincere. There's something left out, I suppose."

"Of course there is. In order to keep from starving, he was obliged to sell some of his books. Then, being heartbroken over the loss of them, he has induced the child to steal them back for him. That seems sensible enough, doesn't it? Of course it's a pity that he should have been forced to sell them, but they were, in a way, a luxury. We all are obliged to give up some luxuries. For my part, I don't see how you are going to keep him out of jail. The child will probably come clear because of her age, but there's not a chance in a million of saving him. There's got to be a show-down sometime. Why not now? The facts we have in our possession are the rightful property of others, of our library, Frank Morrow, the scientific library, of the Silver-Barnard bindery. Why not pass them on?"

Florence was sitting bolt upright in bed. She pointed her finger at her roommate by way of emphasis.

But, tired and perplexed as she was, Lucile never flinched.

"Your logic is all right save for two things," she smiled wearily.

"What two?"

"The character of the old man and the character of the child. They could not do the thing you suggest. No, not for far greater reward. Not in a thousand years." She beat the bed with her hands. "There must be some other explanation. There must. There must!"

For a moment there was silence in the room. Lucile removed her street garments, put on her dream robe, then crept into bed.

"Oh," she sighed, "I forgot to tell you what that extraordinary child asked me to do."

"What?"

"She said she had an errand to do for the old Frenchman; that it would take her a long way from home and she was afraid to go alone. She asked me if I would go with her."

"What did you tell her?"

"I--I told her that both my roommate and I would go."

"You did!"

"Why, yes."

"Well," said Florence, after a moment's thought, "I'll go, but if it's another frightful robbery, if she's going to break in somewhere and carry away some book worth thousands of dollars, I'm not in on it. I--I'll drag her to the nearest police station and our fine little mystery will end right there."

"Oh, I don't think it can be anything like that," said Lucile sleepily. "Anyway, we can only wait and see."

With that she turned her right cheek over on the pillow and was instantly fast asleep.