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and withdrew a card. He handed it to Dexter. Jay and Cindy looked over Dexter’s shoulder as he read out loud:
    ALEX BAXTER
    DETECTIVE INVESTIGATOR
    CBI, LTD.
    CHICAGO BRANCH
    There was a Chicago address and telephone number under that.
    Dexter whistled. “Gee, we didn’t know you were a detective!”
    “Of course you didn’t,” said Alex Baxter. “Naturally I couldn’t tell anyone. And I never would have told you, even now, if it hadn’t been for this young lady. She had started to suspect me—and no wonder. A series of happenings, an unfortunate series of events, forced me into the open, as it were. But only with you,” he said earnestly. “If these crook suspect that I am a detective, they will run away before we have a chance to arrest them. And we must arrest them.”
    Cindy’s head was spinning. “These crooks? What crooks?”
    Alex Baxter glanced through the window set in the porch door. “Come over here,” he whispered. “No one must see that we are talking together.” He led the way to a far corner.
    “I have to confide in you. I can’t have you calling Tom Foster’s attention to me. Then he would know they’d been found. They would disappear again.”
    Cindy started to ask a question. It was all confusing. Alex Baxter stopped her. “Don’t talk. There isn’t time. I’ll tell you everything tomorrow. But now we must move quickly. We must find it before Jenny Mayflower returns.”
    Find it? Find what? wondered Cindy. He must mean the iron dog. They’d have to tell him they had it. And what about Jenny Mayflower?
    “Let me explain,” Alex Baxter continued. “Jenny Mayflower and Tom Foster are a very clever pair of crooks. Very clever indeed. We’ve been on to them for a long time. They are what we call in the trade ‘con artists.’ That means they play a confidence game.”
    “What’s that—a confidence game?” asked Dexter.
    “They appear to be a nice, simple, honest, likeable couple. They get people to have confidence in them. That way they are able to trick people into believing anything. Anything and everything!”
    “Believing what?” asked Jay.
    “Like this,” explained Alex Baxter quickly. “Jenny Mayflower has been Mrs. Melanie Wellington’s secretary and companion for several months.
    She’s gained her confidence and love. Now she’s ready to rob Mrs. Wellington of her possessions, her very home! And Tom Foster works with her. This isn’t the first time they’ve tricked an old, mixed-up lady.” His voice broke. He seemed to be very angry.
    “Jenny—” thought Cindy aloud. “No wonder Mrs. Wellington trusted her. Who wouldn’t?”
    “I don’t get it,” said Jay. “What did she steal anyway?”
    Cindy thought quickly. What did she steal, after all? Was all this fuss about an iron dog? And what did he mean about stealing Mrs. Wellington’s house?

    Alex Baxter seemed not to hear Jay’s question. “Let me continue,” he said. “We haven’t much time. I can fill you in later on all the details.” He rubbed his chin. “This couple has pulled the same trick many times before, but we have never been able to prove anything. We have never been able to make an arrest, an arrest that will stick. Now we are very close, but we need this final proof. Otherwise they will slip through our fingers one more time.” He looked at each of the Spotlighters in turn. “You must help me, you must.”
    “How can we help you?” asked Jay.
    Cindy’s heart pounded. Jenny and Tom crooks? It just couldn’t be true.
    Alex Baxter glanced at Cindy. “Jenny Mayflower has told you that she is to marry this Tom Foster.”
    “In three days,” whispered Cindy.
    Alex Baxter shook his head. “That’s one more of their lies,” he said. “Actually we believe them to be brother and sister.”
    “I don’t understand,” Cindy said, weakly.
    “This is how they work,” Alex Baxter said, leaning forward. “Jenny Mayflower takes a job with a nice rich old lady, like Mrs.