The Outdoor Girls in a Winter Camp | Page 9

sent here.
Imagine my surprise when I got to my hotel, a little while ago, to find
the most promising clue yet."
"What is it?" asked Betty, eagerly.
"I thought you might be interested," said the young man, "and that is
why I called at your house," and he nodded to Will.
"You had gone out," remarked Will to Grace, "so I asked dad where, as
the maid said you'd all been in the library. Then I called up here," and
he nodded to Amy.
"Glad you did," she returned. She seemed to have forgotten the trouble
of the afternoon.
"Well," went on Mr. Blackford, "I feared it was a sort of imposition to
come, and----"

"I told him it wasn't at all," interrupted Will.
"So on I came," proceeded the young business man.
"But what is the clue?" asked Grace, interestedly.
"This," was the reply, as he took some papers from his pocket. "But it's
a clue that----"
"Isn't a clue," put in Will.
"Because----"
"It breaks off in the middle."
"Oh, Will, let him tell it; can't you?" demanded Grace, impatiently.
"We don't know whom we're listening to."
"Well, to be brief," said Mr. Blackford, "the firm I have engaged, the
other day, wrote me that they were on the track of my sister. They felt
sure they were going to find her, and I was very hopeful.
"It seems that they had found some old documents in the attic of a
house where some distant relatives live. They wrote me they were
sending them on, and--here they are!"
He brought out a bundle of time-stained and yellow papers, and spread
them on the table.
"Gracious!" cried Will. "Your sister must be quite elderly to have such
ancient documents refer to her."
"No," said Mr. Blackford, "she is younger than I am, I believe. But I
have no certain knowledge of that. Anyhow, this is part of a letter
written about the girl whom I have every reason to believe is my sister.
And the part that is most interesting----"
"Is where----" began Will.

"Can't you keep still?" begged his sister.
"Has 'oo dot any tandy?" and he imitated little Dodo.
"Oh, take that!" and Grace passed him a caramel. "Now, let's hear what
it is, Mr. Blackford."
"There is a part of the letter which says this," went on Mr. Blackford,
and he proceeded to read:
"'You can always identify the girl because she has a most peculiar
birth-mark on----'"
He ceased reading.
"Well, go on, please," requested Betty. "This is getting interesting."
"It isn't getting interesting--it's so already," declared Mollie. "Go on,
please, Mr. Blackford, tell us what sort of birth-mark your sister has."
"That's just the trouble," he remarked, ruefully. "I can't do it."
"Why not?" Betty wanted to know.
"Because, just at that point--where the description of the birth-mark,
and its location, should appear--the letter is torn. A corner is gone. I
have no more idea of what sort of identifying mark my sister has, than
have you. It is worse than before, for I saw hope ahead of me, only to
see it disappear now.
"I feel sure that the girl referred to in the old letter is my sister; but how
can I identify her, in case I meet her, until I know what sort of a mark
she has, and where it is?"
"You can't!" declared Will, positively.
"And that makes it all the more tantalizing," went on Mr. Blackford.
"They even--that firm I spoke of--they even had located the part of the
country where it might be possible my sister was, and now to have it

fail this way----"
"Where did they say she might be?" asked Amy.
"Somewhere up in Canada. But it is rather vague. If only that piece was
not torn off the edge of the letter!"
"Can't you find it somewhere?" asked Mollie. "Maybe in forwarding it
the people you hired tore it by accident."
"I thought of that, so I telephoned as soon as I got this letter, asking
where the missing piece was. I got word back that they knew nothing
about it."
There was silence for a moment, while they all looked at the mutilated
document Mr. Blackford held up. It showed a tear across one corner, a
tear that disposed of the most vital piece of information contained on
the whole paper.
"That's too bad," spoke Amy, sympathetically.
"Yes," agreed Mollie, as she put back a stray and rebellious lock of hair,
"it spoils all your plans, I suppose, Mr. Blackford."
"In a way, yes. But I'm not going to give up. I'm going to find out
where they got this document from, and go there. It may have been in
some old attic trunk, among some--love letters--and the missing piece
may be there."
"Without