I looked down on the little beggar that had painted me for the second salon,and lo,in a flash she was on her feet,the lapful of good things tumbled to the ground,and Kitty was off.
I was bitterly disappointed in that girl,Mag!I was altogether mistaken in my diagnosis of her.Hers is only a physical cleverness,a talented dexterity.She had no resource in time of danger but her legs.And legs will not carry a grafter half so far as a good,quick tongue and a steady head.
She halted at a safe distance and glared back at me.Her hostility excited the crowd of children--her push--against me,and the braver ones jeered the things Kitty only looked,while the thrifty ones stooped and gathered up the spoil.
"Tell her I wouldn't harm her,"I said to one of her lieutenants.
"She says she won't hurt ye,Kit,"the child screamed.
"She dassent,"yelled back Kitty,the valiant."She knows I'd peach on her about the kid.""Kid!What kid?"I cried,all a-fire.
"The kid ye swiped this mornin'.Yah!I told the cop what brought her back how ye took her jest as I--""Kitty!"I cried."You treasure!"And with all my might I ran after her.
Silly?Of course it was.I might have known what the short skirts above those thin legs meant.I couldn't come within fifty feet of her.I halted,panting,and she paused,too,dancing tantalizingly half a block away.
What to do?I wished I had another purse to bestow on that sad Kitty,but I had nothing,absolutely nothing,except--all at once I remembered it--that little pin you gave me for Christmas,Mag.
I took it off and turned to appeal to the nearest one of the flying body-guard that had accompanied us.
"You run on to her and tell her that if she'll show me the house where that baby lives I'll give her this pin."He sped on ahead and parleyed with Kit;and while they talked Iheld aloft the little pin so that Kit might see the price.
She hesitated so long that I feared she'd slip through my hands,but a sudden rival voice piping out,"I'll show ye the house,Missus,"was too much for her.
So,with Kit at a safe distance in advance to guard against treachery,and a large and enthusiastic following,I crossed the street,turned a corner,walked down one block and half up another,and halted before a three-story brownstone.
I flew up the stairs,leaving my escort behind,and rang the bell.It wasn't so terribly swagger a place,which relieved me some.
"I want to see the lady whose baby was lost this morning,"Isaid to the maid that opened the door.
"Yes'm.Who'll I tell her?"
Who?That stumped me.Not Nance Olden,late of the Vaudeville,later of the Van Twiller,and latest of the police station.
No--not Nance Olden .not .
"Tell her,please,"I said firmly,"that I'm Miss Murieson,of the X-Ray,and that the city editor has sent me here to see her."That did it.Hooray for the power of the press!She showed me into a long parlor,and I sat down and waited.
It was cool and quiet and softly pretty in that long parlor.The shades were down,the piano was open,the chairs were low and softly cushioned.I leaned back and closed my eyes,exhausted.
And suddenly--Mag!--I felt something that was a cross between a rose-leaf and a snowflake touch my hand.
If it wasn't that delectable baby!
I caught her and lifted her to my lap and hugged the chuckling thing as though that was what I came for.Then,in a moment,Iremembered the paper and lifted her little white slip.
It was gone,Mag.The under-petticoat hadn't a sign of the paper I'd pinned to it.
My head whirled in that minute.I suppose I was faint with the heat,with hunger and fatigue and worry,but I felt myself slipping out of things when I heard the rustling of skirts,and there before me stood the mother of my baby.
The little wretch!She deserted me and flew to that pretty mother of hers in her long,cool white trailing things,and sat in her arms and mocked at me.
It was easy enough to begin talking.I told her a tale about being a newspaper woman out on a story;how I'd run across the baby and all the rest of it.
"I must ask your pardon,"I finished up,"for disturbing you,but two things sent me here--one to know if the baby got home safe,and the other,"I gulped,"to ask about a paper with some notes that I'd pinned to her skirt."She shook her head.
It was in that very minute that I noticed the baby's ribbons were pink;they had been blue in the morning.
"Of course,"I suggested,"you've had her clothes changed and--""Why,yes,of course,"said baby's mother."The first thing Idid when I got hold of her was to strip her and put her in a tub;the second,was to discharge that gossiping nurse for letting her out of her sight.""And the soiled things she had on--the dress with the blue ribbons?""I'll find out,"she said.
She rang for the maid and gave her an order.
"Was it a valuable paper?"she asked.
"Not--very,"I stammered.My tongue was thick with hope and dread."Just--my notes,you know,but I do need them.I couldn't carry the baby easily,so I pinned them on her skirt,thinking--thinking--"The maid came in and dumped a little heap of white before me.
I fell on my knees.
Oh,yes,I prayed all right,but I searched,too.And there it was.
What I said to that woman I don't know even now.I flew out through the hall and down the steps and--And there Kitty Wilson corralled me.
"Say,where's that stick-pin?"she cried.
"Here!--here,you darling!"I said,pressing it into her hand.
"And,Kitty,whenever you feel like swiping another purse--just don't do it.It doesn't pay.Just you come down to the Vaudeville and ask for Nance Olden some day,and I'll tell you why.""Gee!"said Kitty,impressed."Shall--shall I call ye a hansom,lady?"Should she!The blessed inspiration of her!
I got into the wagon and we drove down street--to the Vaudeville.
I burst in past the stage doorkeeper,amazed to see me,and rushed into Fred Obermuller's office.
"There!"I cried,throwing that awful paper on the desk before him."Now cinch 'em,Fred Obermuller,as they cinched you.
It'll be the holiest blackmail that ever--oh,and will you pay for the hansom?"XVI.