o explain why he couldn't. But after every try she'd come back
with this wail:

"Oh, but you don't understand what it is to be a mother!"

"Thank the stars I don't!" says he, as he marches out of the room.

I was for clearin' out so he'd be free to shoo her in any style he
wanted to. We'd been havin' dinner with the Ellinses, Vee and I, and it
was time to go home anyway. But there's no budgin' Vee.

"Don't you think Torchy might find out where he is?" she suggests.
"Bein' in the army himself, you know, and so clever at that sort of
thing, I should think----"

"Why, to be sure," breaks in Mr. Robert, perkin' up all of a sudden and
starin' at me. "Lieutenant Torchy to the rescue, of course. He's the
very one."

"Ah, say, how'd you get that way?" says I. "Back up!"

He's off, though, callin' Mrs. Stanton Bliss. And before I can escape
he's sickin' her on real enthusiastic. Also there's Vee urgin' me to
see if I can't do something to locate Wilfred. So I had to make the
stab.

"Got that wire with you?" I asks.

Yes, Mrs. Bliss had all the documents right handy. I takes the yellow
sheet over under the readin' lamp and squints at it sleuthy, partly to
kill time, and partly because I couldn't think of anything else to do.
And of course they all have to gather round and watch me close, as if I
was about to pull some miracle. Foolish! It was a great deal worse than
that.

"H-m-m-m-m!" says I. "Philadelphia. I suppose there's some sort of naval
trainin' station there, eh?"

Mr. Robert says there is.

"But if Wilfred was at it," I goes on, "and didn't want you to find him,
he wouldn't have sent this from there, would he?"

Mrs. Stanton Bliss sighs. "I'm sure I don't know," says she. "I--I
suppose not."

"Must be somewhere within strikin' distance of Philadelphia, though,"
says I. "Now, what camp is near?"

"Couldn't we wire someone in Washington and find out?" asks Mrs. Bliss.

"Sure," says I. "And we'd get an official answer from the Secretary of
War about 11 A.M. next spring. It'll be a lot quicker to call up Whitey
Weeks."

They don't know everything in newspaper offices, but there are mighty
few things they can't find out. Whitey, though, didn't even have to
consult the copy desk or the clippin' bureau.

"About the nearest big one," says he, "is the Ambulance Corps Camp at
Allentown. Somewhere up on the Lehigh. S'long."

Here was another jolt for Mrs. Stanton Bliss. The Ambulance Corps! She
near keele