y
Rose, who had such a strong personality one had to notice her. She did
hope that nothing had happened to her and she, too, remembered the
little girl who had been kidnapped over on Sixth Avenue.

"Of course, nothing has happened to her," Bob Strahan said hurriedly.
"She'll turn up all right."

He told Mrs. Donovan the same thing when he went back and reported the
result of his interview.

"What shall I do?" Mrs. Donovan was twisting the corners of her apron
into hard knots and her mouth twitched with nervousness. "She's never
been out so late as this since she came to Waloo. An' she's all alone!
I'll never forgive myself if anythin's happened to her."

"We'll go over to the police station," suggested Mr. Jerry. "What did
she wear, Mrs. Donovan? The police will want a description of her
clothes."

Mrs. Donovan sobbed as she described the blue and red and green gingham
frock with the white collar and black patent leather belt that had been
Mary Rose's pride.

"We'll call up the hospitals, too," Mr. Jerry said to Bob Strahan as
they drove to the police station in his car. "It's just possible that
she has been hurt, an automobile or something, and taken to a hospital
If she was knocked unconscious she couldn't very well tell who she was."

"Gee!" exclaimed big-eyed white-faced Jimmie Bronson, who had jumped
into the tonneau and was standing with his hands on the back of the
front seat, "I hope Mary Rose wasn't knocked insensible!"

The police had heard nothing of any little girl who answered to the
description of Mary Rose but a careful note was made of what Mr. Jerry
and Bob Strahan had to say of her disappearance. There had been no
report of any accident in the district and no child had been kidnapped
so far as the police knew. Mr. Jerry and Bob Strahan were
disappointed. They felt baffled. It didn't seem possible that a
little girl could have disappeared so completely as Mary Rose had
disappeared. When they drove back to the Washington, Jimmie was not
with them. He was going to make a few inquiries on his own hook, he
told the two men.

"No news is good news, Mrs. Donovan," Mr. Jerry insisted. "Mary Rose
is all right. No one could harm her."

"I wish I could believe that." Mrs. Donovan had lost control of
herself and was sobbing bitterly. "Here it is after ten o'clock an' we
don't know where the little thing is. Seems if bad luck was taggin'
her. It isn't a week since her bird was stolen