Part 32 (1/2)
”And I thought you did not want to be considered a burglar?” she said as she passed hastily in at the door
”Oh, well, we're in for it now,” Darry called after her ”Be as quick as you can”
Jessie found a door open at the top of the flight Henrietta was chattering at top speed somewhere ahead The rooms were dark, but when Jessie found the rooirl bound to a chair in which she sat, with a towel tied across her mouth which muffled her speech
”Here's Bertha! Here's Bertha!” cried Henrietta eagerly
Jessie had the girl free and the towel off in half a irl she and Amy had seen carried away by Martha Poole and Sadie Bothwell, out of Dogtown Lane
”Oh, Miss! is this little Hennie? And have you coasped Bertha
”Surely Are you Bertha Blair?”
”Yes, ma'am Hennie calls me Bertha Haney For I lived with her mom after my mother died But my name's Blair”
”My father is Robert Norwood, the lawyer,” said Jessie swiftly ”He wants you to testify in court about what you heard when that old man made his will at Mrs Poole's house”
”Oh! You entleman came and asked ot to keep my mouth shut about it or she'd put et away”
”So I ran away frotown and see Hennie and the Foleys Why! wasn't you one of the girls, Miss, that saw Mrs Poole putting hed Jessie ”I saw it, but couldn't stop it”
”Well, they brought ht out here, and I've been here ever since
When Mrs Poole isn't here that old wo away”
”But once,” Jessie suggested, ”you had a chance to try to send out a cry for help?”
”There's a radio here They used it one night Then I tried to call for help over it But they heard me and stopped it at once”
”Just the saht us here to-day I will tell you all about it later Coet you away from here before Mrs Poole comes And we must take you to the city to see ly old wo a nu to report the outrage to Mrs Poole
”But the woman will never dare call the police,” Darry assured Jessie
”You tell your father all about it, and he'll knohat to do”
”And we irl said ”I must take Bertha to him The case is already in court”
”I'll fix that for you, Miss Jessie,” Mark Stratford said ”I can get you to town just as quickly as the traffic cops will let me--and they are all o, too So they dropped A, at Roselawn, and after a word to Moht of an arrow in Mark's powerful car for New York