Naturally this provoked argument. Mrs. Haines sided with her husband,
Mrs. Carey flew to the aid of her worser half, Miss Haines wept, and the
little girl screamed. Upstairs, the bogus Aunt Mary was still laughing.

None of the interested parties could tell afterward how long the talk
continued. A louder noise outside drew them all to the front porch. In
front of the house was a hansom cab drawn by a disgusted-looking horse.
He looked and acted like one who had been compelled against his will to
mingle with disreputable associates.

The driver descended from his seat and fell full length upon the
pavement. He didn't try to get up, but chanted in a husky tone, "Hail!
hail! the gang's all here!!!"

Then the door of the cab opened and Mr. Perkins appeared. Nobody could
deny that he was very much the worse for wear. But Mr. Perkins bore
himself like a conqueror. He advanced hastily and embraced Carey with
enthusiasm. Carey recoiled.

"Dear Georsh," said Perkins. "Got you an naunt!"

Apprehensively, Carey ran to the carriage. Huddled upon the floor was an
object that moved faintly. From the atmosphere Sherlock Holmes would
have deduced that a whisky refinery had exploded in that cab a few hours
before. The onlooker gingerly touched the object. It rolled over, then
it rolled out of the cab and lay on the sidewalk beside the driver.

Perkins kept on smiling. "Your naunt," he remarked, blandly. "Couldn't
get you what you wanted. Got you thish one!"

At this moment, Carey remembered that he had a telephone. He spurned his
"aunt" with his foot and passed into the house. He called up Police
Headquarters. His friend, Sergeant Bob O'Rourke, was on duty, which made
it easier for him.

"Bob," he said, after greetings had been exchanged, "have you an alarm
out for a little girl kidnapped from the Pennsylvania station?"

"Yes."

"And does anybody want a crazy woman, last seen on a Lake Shore train?"

"Yes; her keeper was here half an hour ago," was the reply. "He was
taking her to Kankakee and she made a get-away. What do you know about
her?"

"They are both here," was the reply. "Send the wagon, and just for good
measure I'll throw in an Italian immigrant who came in over the B. & O.
and a cab-driver. They are both drunk, very drunk, and please take the
cab away too."

The next half hour gave Indiana Avenue residents plenty to talk about
for a month. But finally the combat was over, and Carey and his friends
sat down