Eleanor was regretful at once.

“Oh, you’re ever so much more sensible than I am, Charlie,” she said.  “It made me angry to think they were acting so when all we wanted was to help them, and I lost my temper.”

“I suspect that that is just what Brack hoped I would do, Eleanor.  And it makes me all the more determined to stick to the case.  You see, I’m actually lawyer for Zara’s father still, and unless I consent to a change of lawyers, he’ll have trouble putting Brack in my place.  Brack knows that, too, if he doesn’t—­and he knows, also, that I know one or two things about him that make it a good idea for him to be careful, unless he wants to be disbarred.”

“Then you’ll keep on working and you’ll try to find out what’s become of Zara, too?”

“Yes.  I looked up the number that Bessie saw—­the number of that car.  And it’s just as I thought.  They were careful enough to use a false number.  There’s no such number recorded as the one that was on the car.”

“But don’t you suppose you can find anyone who saw it before they had a chance to change the numbers?”

“I’m working on that line now, but we haven’t got any reports yet.  I’ve gone to see the district attorney—­the one who looks after the counterfeiting cases as well as the other, who’s just in charge of local affairs.  And I’ve convinced them that there’s something very queer afoot here.  Judge Bailey, who will prosecute Zara’s father for counterfeiting, agrees with me that it looks as if a case had been worked up against him by someone who wants to make trouble for him, and he’s pretty mad at the idea that anyone would dare to use him in such a crooked game.  So we’ll have a friend there, if I can get any evidence to back our suspicions.”

Suddenly Eleanor remembered what Bessie had thought of Mr. Holmes, her suspicion that she had seen him in Hedgeville, and the incident of finding Zara’s ribbon.  And she made Bessie tell the lawyer her story.

He laughed when he heard it, much to Bessie’s distress.

“I don’t think very much of that idea,” he said.  “Mr. Holmes is one of our wealthiest and most respected citizens.  He’d never let himself or his car be mixed up in such a business.  And I’m sure he doesn’t know Brack, and has never had anything to do with him.”

“But it is Zara’s ribbon!  I’m positive of that,” insisted Bessie.  “And he’s the same man I saw at Farmer Weeks’ place in Hedgeville, too.”

“No, no; I’m afraid you’re mistaken, Bessie.”

“But the ribbon—­why should that be in his car?”

“Let me see it.”

She handed him the ribbon, and he looked at it carefully.

“Why, that doesn’t seem to be very promising evidence, Bessie,” he said.  “I suppose you could find ribbon like that in any dry goods store almost anywhere.  Thousands of girls must have pieces just like it.  Even if it is just the same as the one Zara wore, that doesn’t prove anything.  You’d have to have more evidence than that.  However, I’ll keep it in mind.  You never can tell what’s going to turn up, and I suppose it’s easily possible to imagine stranger things than Mr. Holmes being mixed up in this affair.  Well, you can depend upon it that everything possible is being done, and no one could do more than that.  I wish I knew more, that’s all.”