CHAPTER IV

A CLEW


As the druggist had anticipated, a citizens' committee was formed to run
down the assailant of Dorothy and Tavia. The hat bore the mark of a
Rochester house, so that was something of a clew. A hatless man ought to
be easy enough to identify, but of course, he had managed to get a head
covering somewhere; stole it, perhaps, from an open hallway.

But, after an exhaustive search, and much questioning of persons who
might have seen the man, no news of importance was turned in at the
committee meeting.

Mr. Travers had what he considered a tangible clew. Miles Burlock had
told him that a man from Rochester had been hounding him for weeks, and
that he pretended to know something of Burlock's business.

"Burlock, it seems," Mr. Travers said at the meeting, "was, in some way,
connected with the Douglass family. There is money in the affair,
however it may concern Burlock and Mrs. Douglass, and this stranger is
after the cash."

"But what in the world has these children to do with that?" asked the
chairman.