“What do you think of telegraphing to Josie O’Gorman?” asked the Colonel, after taking his granddaughter into a corner after dinner.

“Josie?” cried the Chief, overhearing the question. “That’s a clever idea, and I’m not ashamed to say I’ve been considering Josie for the last hour or more. What that girl can’t stumble against is no work for a detective. She isn’t clever, nor does she consider herself so; but she’s a way of falling into traps set for others that is really remarkable. If you know where Josie is, I advise wiring her the first thing you do.”

“I’ll go down to the telegraph office at once and send the message in your name, Mary Louise,” decided Colonel Hathaway, going into the closet to get his hat and coat. “There’s nothing like promptness in such a case, and my reflections during the past two hours have led me to nothing at all, I must confess. I’ll just step over to the stables a minute and then we’ll start.” The two men and Mary Louise went to the stables, where the Chief unlocked the tower in a wink of an eye, and then carefully examined the contents of Danny’s private room. All was in perfect order, and nothing indicated that the young ex-soldier had intended to be gone more than a day at the most. In the standing room or garage, downstairs, all was as neat as wax and ready for the automobile when it arrived home—if it ever did.

“Nothing to be gained from an inspection here,” remarked the Chief, who had allowed the Colonel to light his cigar but not to smoke it while they were in the building. “You see, Hathaway, it’s a hard thing to trace an automobile, especially if it’s a popular make.”

They stopped at the telegraph office and the girl promised to forward their message at once.

“You see,” said she, “It’s a dull season and a dull hour, and Washington messages supersede all other. This telegram ought to be there in ten minutes, and I’ll send the answer to your house immediately, Colonel Hathaway.”

“Could you send a duplicate to the Police Office at the same time, Miss Girard?” inquired the Chief. She nodded an assent, making her pretty hair flutter in all directions.

“Very well; put everything aside and get our telegram off at once,” said Colonel Hathaway, and they proceeded to the police office.

“That blamed car worries me a good deal; I can’t see how we’re to locate it, with no clue but a tire mark,” remarked the Colonel when they were on the street again.

“Anything can be accomplished if we set our hearts on the task,” returned Chief Lonsdale, somewhat testily.

“There have been six others of this make of machine sold right here,” the Colonel said, “but the one we are looking for had several unusual fittings to mark it. There’s a difference in the wheels of Mary Louise’s car—couldn’t you tell by that; also the driver’s seat is different.”

“I don’t remember having noticed these particular marks myself,” said the Chief, “but a dozen or so of my men have done so, and at this present moment are busy trying to locate Mary Louise’s car.”

“You’re a good fellow, Charlie,” remarked the Colonel gratefully. “I feel sure we’ll get our clutches on the machine sooner or later, even if the streets are crowded with automobiles of this and all other makes.”

“You’re skeptical, of course,” replied the Chief, “regarding the power of the police, but I’m not at all, so I’ll plod along and make the best of a poor beginning. So please have faith in our ability and we’ll find your car.”

“Oh, I’m not afraid of your ability,” said Gran’pa Jim.

“Let’s run down to the office,” proposed the Chief. “We’ll get the news as quickly there as here—perhaps a bit quicker, and I can see you’re too nervous—both of you—to get to sleep at your usual hour.” So they got into the Chief’s auto and started for the police office, where the man at the desk listened quietly but without astonishment to the Chief’s story, referring to a sheet of notes at his side, “Guess I got it all, sir,” he said.

“Is Olmstead out?” asked the Chief.

“Not just now, sir, he’s just back from the telegraph office, where he listened to this message to Mary Louise coming over the wire.”

“Let us see it.” Without a word the desk sergeant handed over a paper with some words scrawled upon it, but neither old Mr. Hathaway nor the Chief of Police had any difficulty in reading it:

“Dear Mary Louise:

“Will be with you to-morrow morning at eight o’clock. Remind Aunt Sally of my insatiable appetite as that’s usually your breakfast hour. With love,

“Josie.”

“Aha! that’s one thing off my mind,” cried Mary Louise, crushing the paper and then spreading it out the full size of the sheet. “It’s well for us that Josie is at home and willing to pick up a case of such a character. There is too much mystery about the case for us to undertake it without the help and backing of that clever girl, and if she is unable to solve the mystery, her father will give her all the necessary help to find both the automobile and Danny Dexter.”

By the time they had adopted Josie O’Gorman’s leadership and decided to depend upon it, the three had left the police office and started for home. It was very annoying both to the Colonel and to Mary Louise to travel on foot after constant use of an automobile. The Chief, having urgent business in another part of the city, was unable to take them in his auto. As they slowly walked toward home, they discussed the mystery and rejoiced that Josie was going to help them solve it.

“She isn’t much of a detective,” remarked the old Colonel, “but she wins as often as she loses, and she’s earnest and hard-working; more-over, she has her father’s brains to appeal to, and there are no more skillful ones in all Washington than those of John O’Gorman.”

“To be sure,” said Mary Louise, as she clung to her grandfather’s arm. “They first sent him to France to take charge of the Secret Service bureau there, but he was recalled because there were more important duties here. Josie wrote me there were a thousand suspects in America to one abroad. Besides, each nation has its corps and band of detectives and some are especially clever.”

“It’s a good thing for us,” declared the old gentleman, “for it gives us Josie, and with her the advice of the shrewdest secret service man in America.”