Part 21 (2/2)
”Do you like any of them, or does any one sound logical?” she asked her chums.
”Sergius!” exclaimed Sim. ”That sounds Russian to me.”
”Sergia,” Terry voted. ”That's also Russian, but one may be a woman's name. How can we get around that? There's no way of finding out from this list. It's very impartial.”
”We can get around it this way,” Arden declared. ”Just use Serg. Then we'll be safe if it's a man or woman. You know a boy's name could be Ted, and they call some girls Ted. I'm in favor of just Serg.”
”It sounds good,” admired Terry.
”I'm for it,” added Sim. ”But what about a last name?”
”There's going to be a rub,” said Terry. ”We took the easiest part first.”
”It seems almost impossible, doesn't it?” sighed Arden.
”Yes, it does. It might be Smith or Brown or Jones,” Sim remarked. ”This is quite an undertaking, I'm afraid.”
”Well, there's no harm in trying,” Arden protested. ”Working with Dimitri in mind, it's logical to suppose that, being Russian, he'd have Russian friends or relatives, isn't it?”
Sim and Terry agreed silently.
”I guess relatives, Arden,” said Sim suddenly. ”I think that man who came here looked like Dimitri.”
”Maybe you're right, Sim. Shall we try Uzlov?” Arden looked to them for agreement.
”Yes!” exclaimed Terry. ”Serg Uzlov! That's a good start.”
”Of course, we may not gain anything by this, and besides, perhaps we should have told Rufus Reilly what we intend to do. Do you think so?”
questioned Arden, chewing the little ring on the top of the fountain pen.
”Not at all!” Sim protested. ”If Dimitri was a brother, or something, I think we'd do just this, and I think we're perfectly justified in doing it.”
This outburst gave them new courage, and they puzzled for some time over the address. Then Terry finally called in her mother.
”What would be the Russian quarter in New York, Mother?” she asked, explaining what they were trying to do.
”Let me try to remember,” said Mrs. Landry. ”Perhaps if I looked again at the address as you have it, something might suggest itself to me.”
They showed it to her, Arden writing it out from memory again.
”There seems to be no question but what this address is in New York,”
Mrs. Landry went on, after several seconds of obvious concentration.
”Now, as to the street. From the way the address is written it must be Ninth Street. It cannot be Nineteenth Street for there was no part of a word before the Ninth, was there?”
”No.” The girls were agreed on that point.
”And it cannot have been Twenty-ninth, or Thirty-ninth or any of the higher numbered streets in the pines. Because the word Ninth was too near the left side of the envelope. So I think it is safe to a.s.sume that Ninth Street was intended.”
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