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Main > Fairy tale > All authors > Frank Baum > Fairy tale "Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville"

Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville

"'Tis evident, me children," said he, in his quaint way, "that you've

shtumbled on the inside of a crime that doesn't show on the outside.

Many of the things you mention are so plain that he who runs may read;

but I've remarked that it's just the things ye don't suspect in real

life that prove to be the most important."

"That is true, Major," commented Louise. "At first it was just to amuse

ourselves that we became amateur detectives, but the developments are so

startling and serious that we now consider it our duty to uncover the

whole dreadful crime, in the interests of justice."

"Just so," he said, nodding.

"But I'm sure Old Hucks is innocent!" declared Patsy, emphatically.

"Then he is," asserted the Major; "for Patsy's always right, even when

she's wrong. I've had me eye on that man Hucks already, for he's the

merriest faced villain I ever encountered. Do you say he's shy with

you girls?"

"He seems afraid of us, or suspicious, and won't let us talk to him,"

answered Beth.

"Leave him to me," proposed the Major, turning a stern face but

twinkling eyes upon the group. "'Twill be my task to detect him. Leave

him to me, young women, an' I'll put the thumb-screws on him in

short order."

Here was the sort of energetic confederate they had longed for. The

Major's assurance of co-operation was welcome indeed, and while he

entered heartily into their campaign he agreed that no mention of the

affair ought to reach Uncle John's ears until the case was complete and

they could call upon the authorities to arrest the criminal.

"It's me humble opinion," he remarked, "that the interesting individual

you call the 'avenger' was put on the trail by someone here--either

Thomas Hucks, or the timber-toed book agent, or the respectable hardware

man. Being invited to come and do his worst, he passed himself as a

docther on a fishing excursion, and having with deliberate intent

murthered Captain Wegg, got himself called by the coroner to testify

that the victim died of heart disease.

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