Grand Forks herald., 1917-02-14
BY EDGAR JEPsOM

''She's wonder. that child" said.
She'll soon relieve me Of all respon-
sibility about this garden"
''She does look after things" said
Alice.
1t was perhaps a quarter of an
hour later that we found her looking
after things again. We heard howls
and outcries in corner of the garden,
and hurried up to find out what was
happening. In the middle Of ring Of
shrieking children l saw the angel
child. She had one hand clenched in
the two-colored curls Of little Lord
Pomeroy and was smacking his face
with the other. His were the howls we
had heard.
dashed for. them and got hold of
them. They came apart more easily
than I had expected: and little Lord
Pomeroy ran off bowling.
"Thatn teach him to stick pins into
babies." said the angel-child tri-
umphantly.
did not think that 1t would.
Little Lord Pomeroy's nurse came
up and began to scold her; Alice
scolded her, too. think 1t was those
tow-colored curls that made little
Lord Pomeroy such a pet. Miss d.
Eresby defended herself with a firm
gallantry 1t seemed that Gwendolen
Binns had slipped away to gossip
lune sleeping in his perambulator.
Little Lord Pomeroy had thought the
chance too good to be missed and
prodded Lord Cantelune with a pin.
1t had not been so good a chance as
little Lord Pomeroy had supposed; !;
for the angel-child had come upon
him unawares in the very act and Sc
cured the requisite grip on his curls
before he knew that she was there.
defended the angel-child and
praised her handling of the situation;
and Alice scolded me for encouraging
her in her violent administration of
justice. 1t took up the rest of the af-
ternoon to argue it out.
The angel-child went away early in
the afternoon, saying that she expect
ed that the little beasts (she was re-
ferring to little Lord Pomeroy) moth
er would come out and make a fuss.
When l saw her the next day she
was frowning as If she were trying to
think hard and found it a strain.
1 asked her what was the matter;
and she said: "It's Frederick and
Gwendolen Binns. l don't know what
to do with Their. want to give them
a real lesson"
But you're always giving Frederick
real lessons 1 said.
Il want to give him one he'll really
remember, and Gwendolen Binns,
too"
II expect you'll think of one, If you
go on trying" I said in a cheering
tone.
II thought perhaps you could help
me-" she said.
sat down on bench and gave my
mind to it; but ] could not hit on &
k~II =, kI.~A
more in her line than in mine, and
left it at that.
Three days later I came back home
about four o'clock after motoring to
Wembley and back for little polo
practice. AS I stopped before my
house. I saw a crowd in the garden
near one of the gates, and went to see
what was the matter.
The crowd was composed of nurse
maids and children. and in the middle
of it were Police-Constable Brookes
and another policeman. I pushed
, through it and asked Broolles what
was the matter.
There's a baby missin'. m'Lord."
said Brookes. Lord Cantelune's lis
name"
He went on questioning Gwendolen
Binns.
She declared again and again that
the child and when she looked round
he had gone. One of the older nurses
volunteered the information that
Gwendolen had been talking to Fred
erick for at least ten minutes; and
Gwendolen said with some heat that
she would not demean herself to an.
swer to such lies.
There was something of an alter
cation; and I gathered that she had
1nft Nr1 clo iVor in, hi
perambulator, and when she returned
to it, the perambulator was empty.
Now Lord Cantelune could not have
got out of his perambulator by him.
self. He was not old enough. More
over, Gwendolen Binns asserted that
he had been strapped into it secure
ly. If he got out of it he could not
have crawled any distance from it. for
he had only Just reached the crawling
stage, and would be seriously ham
pered by his outdoor clothes. 1t was
quite plain somebody had taken him.
Here Alice interviewed with the in
formation that she had seen two
tramps loafng outside the garden;
and little Daisy Sartorius had seen
them. too.
This put serious complexion on
the business; and I took charge of it.
I divided up the children and the
to search the strawberries thoroughly.
sent off one of the policemen to the
station to inform the inspector in
charge, and have the news telephoned
to the neighboring police stations. Be-
fore the children and nursemaids were
halfway through their search. the in
spector himself. accompanied by three
more policemen. came in haste from
the station. 7 suggested that each po-
70 L O hi
maid who knew Lord Cantelune
(there are at least two to each fami-
ly), and make inquiries in the neigh
boring streets to find which way the
men had gone. The inspector fell in
with the suggestion; neither the
nurse maids nor the policemen made
any objection: and after we had map
ped out the area to be searched by
each couple, off they went cheerfully.
Then suggested to Alice that she and
should go hunting eastward She
agreed: and we started. Just as we
were leaving the garden the first
newspaper reporter arrived and fell
eagerly on Gwendolen Binns.
Alice was distressed. and disposed
to think that Lord Cantelune would
never be found. was not. We had
been too quick discovering his loss
and setting out to hunt down the kid
nappers. Long before they could reach
their lair the newspapers would have
set half London on their track. un-
less they CHANGED to be living close by
in one of the Mayfair slums. And
then those slums are not so large as
they are dirty; and the police could
ransack them thoroughly without any
great dificulty. 1t is not easy for a
tramp to get any distance with clean
baby without attracting notice.
had chosen the most likely direc-