enclosed with it.

"You can't deny then," Josie said severely, "that Mrs. Waller's board
has been paid and paid in advance and also that you have been conniving
with this Chester Hunt in unlawfully detaining this lady in your
institution after she has been entirely cured of any nervous malady she
may have had."

Dr. Harper was speechless for a moment. He had tried to interrupt her
but with a warning finger Josie had held him spellbound. At last he
sputtered:

"You--you--why you are nothing more than a servant in my establishment.
Get out of my office!"

"I have been a servant in your establishment to further my own ends.
Now I am through with my job. I'll ask you, sir, to pay me off, as I am
leaving. I have served you well in the capacity of servant and the
laborer is worthy of his hire."

"Who are you, anyhow?" he exploded wrathfully.

"I am Josie O'Gorman. Perhaps you remember my father, Detective
O'Gorman. He had certain dealings with you and had not he been cut off
at the height of his career, his reckoning with you would have come,
much to your undoing. As it is, he only scared you a bit. I am merely
carrying on his work. I have scared you a bit more. Now I fancy you
will let Captain Waller take his wife away unmolested. No doubt Mr.
Chester Hunt will soon be here to settle with you. You owe me $17.35. I
prefer cash."

The angry old man counted out the money, his hand shaking and his beard
wagging. He was loath to have them go without giving them his heartfelt
curses, but he was speechless.

"Now I feel justified in having retained the room and bath at the
hotel," Josie said to herself. "Captain and Mrs. Waller can be
comfortable in it and no doubt my host can put me up in a smaller way."

The last train that might connect with the line going to Dorfield had
gone and there was nothing to do but wait until morning.

"The children are safe and not unhappy," smiled Mrs. Waller, "so we
must content ourselves for a few hours in realizing that."

"I am going to telegraph my friend Mrs. Danny Dexter--Mary Louise--and
tell her to prepare the children for the great happiness in store for
them. Or would you rather surprise them?"

"It is hardly fair to keep them in ignorance of their dear father's
being alive just for the pleasure we might get in surprising them,"
said the mother.

"That is so like you, Mary. I can't see how I ever could for one
instant have forgotten all your goodness," and Stephen Waller