“The point,” Leonidas said, “is, after all, not the gender of a truck, Cassie. The point is that the truck belonging to Pig Eyes is to be found in the Arthur Street garage—”
“I know,” Cassie said. “I know. I’m just carping because I resent having been so stupid. Bill, that’s what she was on Florence Street, and in that vicinity for, wasn’t it? She was going to find Pig Eyes. She was the one who hired him! Cuff, I think you’re marvelous!”
“Aw,” Cuff said, “it wasn’t nothing. I knew if I thought long enough, I’d think where I seen that truck once before. There wasn’t no name on it, but I seen it somewheres, and I only just had to think where. Say, Mrs. Price, you better call about your car now,” he paused with his hand on the back-door knob, “and I’ll go tell the boys in Car Fifteen they should park out front, huh?”
“Why?” Leonidas asked. “Cassie, phone!”
“Why, so as nobody won’t come inside here while we’re all gone out. But what’ll I tell ‘em?”
“Tell ‘em,” Cassie picked up the red phone, “that Mr. Witherall lost his other key ring, the one with his— Police headquarters, please. The one with his name and address on the tag. Wait. Police headquarters? This is Mrs. Price, Oh, hello, Anderson. How are Lucille’s tonsils? Oh, I’m awfully glad. That’s fine! Anderson, someone’s stolen my black sedan! Yes! I just looked out—”
After a lengthy conversation, during the course of which Cassie explained in detail about her stolen sedan, and offered many helpful hints on tonsillectomies and their aftercare, Cassie finally set down the receiver.
“He says he thinks they already know where it is, and he’ll have it sent right op. With his name and address on the tag, Cuff. And—”
Leonidas interrupted her.
“But is it worth the effort, I wonder? Cuff, should you honestly be deterred from your purpose of wilfully entering my house, merely by the presence of Car Fifteen? That is to say,” he realized that Cuff was getting confused again, “if you wished to get into this house, would a prowl car parked out front disturb you in the least?”
“Gee, I don’t think so,” Cuff said after a moment’s reflection. “I’d put in a fake call to the other side of the hill here, see? And then get in while they was gone to answer it.”
“Exactly,” Leonidas said. “So, why bother with Car Fifteen? On the other—”
“But we must be able to lock the doors!” Cassie said. “There must be some way we can fix things, Dow! Isn’t there?”
Dow shook his head.
“I made two errors in this house,” he said. “I did too good a job in segregating the garage and the maid’s room. Everybody who saw this house had that excellent segregation pointed out. Everyone knew that the back door and this part of the house were as another world. I took pleasure in explaining to people how Mr. Witherall would never be disturbed. If I hadn’t tried so hard for seclusion, this never could have happened. And I ought to have installed electric eyes, Bill. I thought of ‘em. But short of a complete door and window electric eye or electric lock installation, I don’t think anything can help us now. Bill’s right, Cassie. If someone set his heart on getting in here, police cars wouldn’t stop him. Nothing would.”
“Pooh!” Cassie said. “A door barricade would discourage me!”
“For how long?” Dow asked. “Just about two seconds. Then you’d hop up on a snow bank, and shinny up to the sun deck, and pick a window lock. Someone’ll have to stay here— Cuff, if you knew that someone was in a house, would you break and enter just the same?”
Cuff said it would all depend.
“Me, I wouldn’t. If there’s one person, you can’t never tell there ain’t two, so you’d need a rod, and then you get away from things like just breaking and entering in the night, into—”
“Armed robbery,” Cassie said, “and assault and battery with dangerous weapons, and mayhem, and all. Bill, I know how we can settle it. Leslie and Dow can both stay here.”
Leslie and Dow both protested vehemently.
“D’you think,” Leslie said, “after all I’ve gone through, Fm going to sit here quietly with—well, with a milk bottle in my hand, or a bread knife, or something, scaring away Tudbury’s Horse, while you go gallivanting off, finding that Chard woman? Not much! I’ve got a few pungent words to say to Chard, myself! Fm going!”
“So’m I,” Dow said. “After the way she foxed me, Fm going to have the last tag. Stay here? Not, as my esteemed mother says, not on your tintype! No, sir!”
“Both of you are going to sit right here,” Cassie said. “You can barricade the front door, and fix things so no one can get down the stairs from the second floor without your knowing it, and—”
“And have a nice game of casino here in the kitchen!” Dow said. “Or maybe Russian bank.”
“Dear me,” Cassie looked at him, “aren’t you stupid? Aren’t you a great goon! You spent the entire morning and forenoon discussing her eyes and her teeth and her hair and her lovely voice, and now you—”
“Suppose,” Leslie said quickly, “that Tudbury’s Horse came trooping back? How could we stop them any more than you could? Suppose those little girls drop in again to wait for their bus home? We can hardly lay violent hands on a lot of little innocent children!”
“On second thought,” Dow said, “Cassie has the right idea. This is the best place for us, Leslie. We can sit here by the back door and read Haseltine aloud, the picture of perfect domesticity. Haven’t you got some Haseltine, Bill?”
“That’s a beautiful picture!” Leslie said. “Tudbury’s Horse knows me as a nurse. What would happen if they burst in while you were reading to
