For the next half hour every nook and corner of the town was ransacked. Many a little girl was stopped and asked if her name was Betty Armstrong. But always it was a shake of the head and the word no. Suddenly the news spread that the search was off and that the child was safely home. Ken, who was with Paul, sprinted home. The two boys burst into the house and found Betty sitting very calmly at the table having her dinner. Quite innocently she shook a finger a her big brother and scolded him. “You’re late,” she told him. “Mama is angry if you come late for dinner.”
The two boys, hot and out of breath as they were, couldn’t resist laughing at the innocent humor of the child. “Where were you?” Ken demanded.
Just then Mr. Armstrong came in. Seeing his missing child at the table, he sighed with relief. Mrs. Armstrong came in from the kitchen and said, “You men better have your dinner right away, before it gets spoiled.”
Paul moved away, saying, “I will wait for you upstairs, Ken, in your room.”
“Jack is also upstairs,” mentioned Mrs. Armstrong. “He found the child and brought her home.”
Paul walked upstairs while Mr. Armstrong turned to his wife and asked, “Where did he find her?”
“On Leonard Street.”
“So far away!” exclaimed Ken. “Leonard Street is at the edge of the town.”
“Yes.”
“What was she doing there?” asked Mr. Armstrong.
“Who knows?” his wife exclaimed.
Ken turned to his younger sister. “What were you doing so far away from home?” he demanded.
“Don’t bother the child now,” asserted his mother. “Let us eat now. You can ask her all the questions you want later or tomorrow.”
“Yes, Mother.”
The family settled down to their meal and for the present tried to forget the anxiety and worry the child had caused them.
As soon as he could get away from the table, Ken did so and raced upstairs. Dashing into his room, he called out, “Hello, Jack.”
“Hello, Ken. I hear Betty gave you a bad scare.”
“And how!” added Paul. “The only ones we did not have searching for her were the marines, and only because there are none in Stanhope.”
“Yes, that is just what I want to ask you about, Jack. How did you come to find her?” asked Ken.
“I was out that way visiting Bud Menninger. You know him, don’t you, Ken?”
“Yes, he is the fellow who wants to join our troop, isn’t he?”
“That’s right,” answered Jack. “Well, I was riding home on my bicycle when I happened to notice Betty walking along, all by herself. I was so surprised, I wouldn’t believe my eyes at first. I couldn’t imagine what she would be doing so far away from home. At any rate, I jumped off my bike and approached her and then I saw that it was really her. She was sucking a large peppermint stick.”
“Sucking a peppermint stick!” exclaimed Ken. “Who gave it to her?”
“That is just the point. I asked her and she replied that a man gave it to her.”
“A man!—”
Paul interrupted. “Don’t interrupt, Ken,” he said. “Listen to the rest of the story. It is mighty interesting.”
“All right, I won’t interrupt. Go on.”
“Well, I questioned her a little more,” continued Jack, “and she told me that she was walking home from the Smiths when a man stopped her and asked if she wanted some candy. Like a child, she couldn’t refuse. So he took her by the hand and he bought her that peppermint stick she was sucking.”
“Then what?” Ken asked eagerly.
“From further questioning, it seems that after he bought her the candy, they just kept on walking. I looked her over closely and saw that she was not all frightened or hurt in any way. So it seems that the man who took her walking, did not harm her in the least.”
“But how come he left her at the edge of the town all by herself. A man must be crazy to do a thing like that.”
“Now that is a clue,” spoke up Paul. “An ordinary man would not do a thing like that.”
“Clue!” exclaimed Ken, surprised. “What sort of clue? What are you talking about?”
“Let me finish,” urged Jack. “As I was talking to her, I noticed that she kept one hand behind her back. I asked her why and she just shrugged her shoulders. I looked and I saw that she was clutching a card in her little fist. I asked where she got it and she told me that the man gave it to her before he left her. I asked her to give it to me and she did. Here it is.”
Jack held up the white card, three inches by two inches. The boys huddled together, examining it. “Why, it is just a plain, blank, white card!” exclaimed Ken.
“That’s right. But what is the meaning of it?” asked Jack.
There was no answer. The three boys were mystified. The whole story sounded very odd and the card made it all the more perplexing. “From all the evidence at hand,” remarked Paul, “I am convinced that there must be something wrong with the man who walked off with the child.”
“But that’s just it,” exploded Ken. “If there is something wrong with the man, he must be found out and put away into an asylum. He can’t be permitted to roam the streets and walk away with children.”
“And if Paul’s suggestions are correct,” added Jack, “God knows what other tricks he might be up to and what damage he may be doing.”
“Now let’s think this out calmly and logically,” said Paul. “First did you ask Betty to describe the man?”
“I did,” replied Jack. “But all she would say was that he was tall and very kind to her.”
“There are many tall men in town. That is no clue,” said Ken.
Paul rose. “We certainly have to look into the matter and see what we can do.”
“What can we do?” asked Ken. “As far as I know there are no crazy people in Stanhope and only a lunatic would do a thing like that.”
“We have about an hour before the meeting,” suggested Jack. “Suppose we go down to Leonard Street and look around.”
Just then Mr. Armstrong came in. “Hello, Jack,” he greeted.
“Hello, Mr. Armstrong.”
He saw that the boys seemed to be on the verge of leaving and he said, “I hope I am not keeping you boys from going on your way.”
“Well, we were preparing to leave, but—” that from Ken.
“I merely want to ask Jack about his finding Betty.”
Jack repeated his story, leaving out the part about the white card. For a while there was silence. Mr. Armstrong mused. Finally he said, “It must have been some man who knows the family and bought her some candy.”
“But why should he leave her at the end of the town to walk back alone,” demanded Ken.
Mr. Armstrong shrugged his shoulders wearily. “I can’t understand that myself,” he said. “But the fact remains that the child was not harmed. Which leads us to the conclusion that the man must have been a friend.”
The boys had no desire to argue with the older man and so they left it at that. In the street, Ken asked, “Why did you leave out that