Part 26 (1/2)

But, deftly, Mrs Schwartz met and conquered the difficulties raised

In the first place, the baby would come to no harm Her sister would see to that In the second, the led so as to elude detectives and rural constables She had known of such a case And she related the details;--clever yet utterly siht with safety to all concerned;--details which, for that very reason, need not be cited here

Bit by bit, she went on with her outline of the ca the practicability of each

The next Thursday evening, Rennick and his ent, as usual, to the weekly e club which they had joined for the sue of a competent nurse At nine o'clock, the nurse went to the telephone in reply to a call purporting to be from an attendant at a New York hospital

This call occupied the best part of twenty minutes For the attendant proceeded to tell her in a very roundabout way that her son had been run over and had co He dribbled the infor her volley of frightened questions

Shaken between duty to her job and a yearning to catch the next train for town, the nurse went back at last to the nursery The baby's crib was e in the world for Mrs Schwartz to enter the house by the unfastened front door, while one of her husband's brothers held the nurse in telephone talk; and to go up to the nursery, unseen, while the other servants were in the kitchen quarters There she had picked up the baby and had carried hirounds

One of Schwartz's brothers aiting, beyond the gate; with a disreputable little runabout Presently, the second brother joined him

Mrs Schwartz lifted the baby into the car One of thewheel The runabout had started upon its orderly fourteen-ive the alare, where her husband ether to the local hed so loudly over the coer had to warn them to be quieter At once, the couple becanominiously from the theater

There could scarcely have been a better alibi to prove their absence of co

Meanwhile, the two brothers continued quietly on their journey toward Paterson The baby slept His bearer had laid hioric, administered by Mrs Schwartz as the child awoke for an instant on the way to the gate, insured sound slu of the car did not rouse the tiny sleeper; as he lay snugly between the feet of the iven

The first six miles of the easy journey were soon traversed Then, with a pop and a dispiritedly swishi+ng sound, a rear tire collapsed Out into the road jumped both men Their nerves were none too steady And, already, in fancy they could hear all the police cars in New Jersey close at their heels It behooved thee tires in a hurry, and to finish their nerve-twisting trip

The driver vaulted over the side nearest hiions for a jack The other man picked up the baby and hurried to the rear of the runabout to detach the spare tire from its dusty rack Manifestly, he could not unstrap the tire while he was carrying a baby in his arms So he set down his burden at the roadside, near him

Then, still obsessed by fear of pursuit, he hit on a safer scheain, he carried the warm little bundle to the far side of the road, some thirty yards beyond, and deposited it there, behind a dwarf alder bush which screened it fro Thus, in case of pursuit, he and his brother wouldof anyto find a jack under the seat, the driver cli field in search of two or three big stones to serve the sa up the axle For several minutes theexcept the need of haste

Thus it was that neither of they except for a pair of absurdly tiny white forepaws,--co the road fro The car la Lad; for the di his usual before-bedti stroll had been confined to the Place's grounds, a quarter- treasures for the Mistress had lured hiht, as for a day or so past, he had drawn blank in his quest The road had been distressingly bare of anything worth carrying hohted eyes were attracted by a die; just within the dim radiance of the car-lamps Even sooner than he saw this, his keen nostrils had told him of huate

Standing over the co of clothes, Laddie bent down and sniffed It was a human He knew that; in spite of the thick veil that covered the slumberer's face But it was also a bundle It was a bundle which ht the Mistress almost as much as had the parasol;--far more than had the defunct chicken

Daintily, with infinite gentleness, Lad fixed his teeth in the loosest portion of the bundle that he could find; and lifted it It was a But difficulties had never yet swerved Lad froth, he turned hohty jaws

And now, he are of so the Mistress onetenderness toward everything helpless and little He adored children

The roughest of them could take unpardonable liberties with him He would let them maul and mistreat hie; although to humans other than the Mistress and the Master, he was sternly resentful of any familiarity

His senses told hi alone and defenseless beside the road He had found it And his heart warmed to the helpless little creature which was so heavy to carry

Proudly, now, he strode along; hisfroht break in sixty pieces at any careless step

The spare tire was adjusted The lanced nervously up and down the road No car or pedestrian was in sight The driver scrambled to his place at the wheel His brother crossed to the alder bush behind whose shelter he had left the baby Back he came, on the run