Agatha Lord may have lacked something of Nan’s experience, but this speech proved her a fair diplomat.  It dispersed the gathering storm and during the rest of that afternoon the three counseled together in perfect harmony, O’Gorman confiding to his associates such information as would enable them to act with him intelligently.  Hathaway and Peter Conant could not arrive till the next day at noon; they might even come by the afternoon train.  Nan’s field glasses would warn them of the arrival and meanwhile there was ample time to consider how they should act.

CHAPTER XXIII

A KISS FROM JOSIE

That evening, as Sarah Judd was sitting in her room reading a book, her work for the day being over, she heard a succession of little taps against her window-pane.  She sat still, listening, until the taps were repeated, when she walked straight to the window, drew the shade and threw tip the sash.  O’Gorman’s face appeared in the opening and the girl put a hand on each of his cheeks and leaning over kissed him full upon his lips.

The man’s face, lighted by the lamp from within the room, was radiant.  Even the fat nose was beatified by the love that shone in his small gray eyes.  He took one of her hands in both of his own and held it close a moment, while they regarded one another silently.

Then he gave a little beckoning signal and the girl turned to slip on a light coat, for the nights were chill on the mountain.  Afterward she unfastened her outside door and joined the detective, who passed an arm around her and led her to one of the benches on the bluff.

The new moon was dim, but a sprinkling of stars lit the sky.  The man and girl were far enough from the Lodge not to be overheard.

“It’s good to see you again, Josie,” said O’Gorman, as they seated themselves on the bench.  “How do you like being a sleuth?”

“Really, Daddy,” she replied, “it has been no end of a lark.  I’m dead sick of washing other folks’ dishes, I confess, but the fun I’ve had has more than made up for the hard work.  Do you know, Dad, I had a session with Nan Shelley one day, and she didn’t have much the best of it, either, although she’s quick as a cat and had me backed off the map in every way except for the matter of wits.  My thoughts didn’t crumble much and Nan was good enough to congratulate me.  She knew, as soon as I did, about the letter the crippled girl found in a book, but I managed to make a copy of it, while Nan is still wondering where it is hid.  I’m patting myself on the back, Dad, because you trained me and I want to prove myself a credit to your training.  It’s no wonder, with such a master, that I could hold my own with Nan Shelley!”

He gave a little amused laugh.

“You’re all right, Josie dear,” he replied.  “My training wouldn’t have amounted to shucks if you hadn’t possessed the proper gray matter to work with.  But about that letter,” more seriously; “your telegram told me a lot, because our code is so concise, but it also left a good deal to be guessed at.  Who wrote the letter?  I must know all the details in order to understand it properly.”