]
"Padgett," replied the children's guardian.
"Yes; Mrs. Padgett. Mrs. Padgett, my client is hunting a lost child,
and hearing this little girl was with you some days, she would like
to make some inquiries."
"But the child's taken clear away!" exclaimed Grandma Padgett.
"If you drove out from Injunop'lis," said the Quaker's wife, "you
must have met the show-wagon on the 'pike."
"The show-wagon took to a by-road," observed the lawyer. "We have
men tracking it now."
"I knew it wasn't right for them to carry off that child," said the
Quaker's wife, "and if I'd tended the door they wouldn't carried her
off."
"It was best not to arouse their suspicions before she could be
identified," said the lawyer. "It's easy enough to take her when we
know she is the child we want."
"Maybe so," said the Quaker's wife.
"Easy enough. The vagabonds can't put themselves beyond arrest
before we can reach them, and on the other hand, they could make a
case against us if we meddle with them unnecessarily. Since Mrs.
Tracy came West a couple of weeks ago, and since she engaged me in
her cause, we have had a dozen wrong parties drawn up for
examination; children of all ages and sizes.
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