At the end of this afternoon some officers came to the
Sherwoods' and arrested Larry Brainard. I was working outside,
overheard what was happening, and crept up on the porch. Officer
Gavegan, who was in charge, found a painting among Larry Brainard's
things. Miss Sherwood said that it was a picture of Miss Maggie
Cameron who had been visiting there, and I could see that it was.
Officer Gavegan said it was a picture of Maggie Carlisle, daughter of
Jimmie Carlisle, and that she was a crook. Larry Brainard, cornered,
had to admit that Gavegan was right. I guessed at once who Maggie
Carlisle was, since she was just the age my girl would have been and
since you never had any children. And that's how, Jimmie Carlisle,
standing there outside the window," concluded the terrible voice of
Joe Ellison, "I learned for the first time that the baby I'd trusted
with you to be brought up straight, and that I believed was now happy
somewhere as a nice, decent girl, you had really brought up as your
own daughter and trained to be a crook!"
Old Jimmie shrank back from Joe's blazing eyes; his mouth opened
spasmodically, but no words came therefrom. There was stupendous
silence in the room. Within the closet, Larry now understood that low,
strange sound he had heard on the Sherwoods' porch and which Gavegan
and Hunt had investigated.
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