The Millionaire Baby | Page 4

was not a
cloud in the sky; but nothing definite, nothing which could give hope to
the distracted mother or do more than divide the attention of the police
between two different but equally tenable theories. Then came the
cablegram from Mr. Ocumpaugh, which threw amateur as well as
professional detectives into the field. Among the latter was myself;
which naturally brings me back once more to my own conclusions.
Of one thing I felt sure. Very early in my cogitations, before we had
quitted the Park Avenue tunnel in fact, I had decided in my own mind
that if I were to succeed in locating the lost heiress, it must be by
subtler methods than lay open to the police. I was master of such
methods (in this case at least), and though one of many owning to
similar hopes on this very train which was rushing me through to
Homewood, I had no feeling but that of confidence in a final success.

How well founded this confidence was, will presently appear.
The number of seedy-looking men with a mysterious air who alighted
in my company at ---- station and immediately proceeded to make their
way up the steep street toward Homewood, warned me that it would
soon be extremely difficult for any one to obtain access to the parties
most interested in the child's loss. Had I not possessed the advantage of
being already known to Mrs. Ocumpaugh, I should have immediately
given up all hope of ever obtaining access to her presence; and even
with this fact to back me, I approached the house with very little
confidence in my ability to win my way through the high iron gates I
had so frequently passed before without difficulty.
And indeed I found them well guarded. As I came nearer, I could see
man after man being turned away, and not till my card had been handed
in, and a hurried note to boot, did I obtain permission to pass the first
boundary. Another note secured me admission to the house, but there
my progress stopped. Mrs. Ocumpaugh had already been interviewed
by five reporters and a special agent from the New York police. She
could see no one else at present. If, however, my business was of
importance, an opportunity would be given me to see Miss Porter. Miss
Porter was her companion and female factotum.
As I had calculated upon having a half-dozen words with the mother
herself, I was greatly thrown out by this; but going upon the principle
that "half a loaf was better than no bread," I was about to express a
desire to see Miss Porter, when an incident occurred which effectually
changed my mind in this regard.
The hall in which I was standing and which communicated with the
side door by which I had entered, ended in a staircase, leading, as I had
reason to believe, to the smaller and less pretentious rooms in the rear
of the house. While I hesitated what reply to give the girl awaiting my
decision, I caught the sound of soft weeping from the top of this
staircase, and presently beheld the figure of a young woman coming
slowly down, clad in coat and hat and giving every evidence both in
dress and manner of leaving for good. It was Miss Graham, a young
woman who held the position of nursery-governess to the child. I had

seen her before, and had no small admiration for her, and the sensations
I experienced at the sight of her leaving the house where her services
were apparently no longer needed, proved to me, possibly for the first
time, that I had more heart in my breast than I had ever before realized.
But it was not this which led me to say to the maid standing before me
that I preferred to see Mrs. Ocumpaugh herself, and would call early
the next day. It was the thought that this sorrowing girl would have to
pass the gauntlet of many prying eyes on her way to the station and that
she might be glad of an escort whom she knew and had shown some
trust in. Also,--but the reasons behind that also will soon become
sufficiently apparent.
I was right in supposing that my presence on the porch outside would
be a pleasing surprise to her. Though her tears continued to flow she
accepted my proffered companionship with gratitude, and soon we
were passing side by side across the lawn toward a short cut leading
down the bank to the small flag-station used by the family and by
certain favored neighbors. As we threaded the shrubbery, which is very
thick about the place, she explained to me the cause of her abrupt
departure. The sight of her, it seems, had