Chapter 5

I got on the job the next morning. I visited the home of the Van Steels to take a look at the bedroom. Of course, the room had been thoroughly cleaned the day after the kidnapping, so I didn't expect to find much of anything. Nevertheless, I felt like I needed to cover all of the bases, so I went to look. As expected, I didn't find anything useful, but I talked to the servants who lived in the house.

There was one potentially useful clue. One of the maids said that she had dreamed of hearing two men talking in German, her native language, but it was not a form of German that she could recognize. Could this be Yiddish? If so, only Jews spoke that language, and they tended to cluster together, so I would start my investigation with that thought in mind.

I got directions to the Jewish community and took a cab; there were no arguments this time. I was dressed in the clothes that I had been wearing when I got to San Francisco and drew no stares. That was a relief. However, I recognized an immediate problem the moment I stepped from the taxi. This place was just too big and too crowded for me to mount a search all alone. I found a place to sit while I mulled the situation.

I knew I had to have help with my search, but I did not know how to manage that. Then it came to me: why not emulate Sherlock Holmes? There were a lot of kids running around playing on the sidewalks and in the streets, and the adults were simply ignoring them. That was when I remembered the children that Holmes recruited to be his Baker Street Irregulars. I looked around and found a boy who seemed to be the leader of a small troop of half a dozen other boys. He was about 11 or 12 years old, and led the others without bullying them.

I waved him to me, and he came over after a moment's thought. That caution was something else to be admired. I said, "Howdy, Son? My name is John Wilson. I have a business proposition for you. How would you like to make two-bits a week working for me?"

"My name is Aaron Blumberg. That is good money, but what would I have to do?"

"Ah, a very good question! I need to find somebody, a girl by the name of Eve Van Steel, and I need help looking for her. I think that she is being held against her will somewhere in the Jewish community, and I am not a Jew, so I would have a hell of a time finding her. On the other hand, you and your friends would not create much of a fuss if you were looking for her.

"I want to hire you and some other boys to look for her. I will pay two-bits to everyone who looks, a dollar to anyone who brings me news that I can use, and $10 to anyone who can tell me exactly where to find her. The two-bits is for one day or seven days, it does not matter, so long as you are actively looking for her.

"Are you interested in the job and can I count on you to keep what you are doing a secret, even from you families?"

"Yes, Sir, Mr. Wilson. We can do that. When do you want us to start, and where can we find you to report our progress and to collect our money?"

"Very good, Aaron. You have a good head for business. You can start right now, and I will be here at this place every day to hear your report. So go ahead and talk to your friends. I will leave now and hope to have a picture of Eve by this time tomorrow."

"Okay, Mr. Wilson, I will see you tomorrow."

If this search went as well as I hoped, I may have more business for Aaron Blumberg in the future. I left for my hotel to pick up the picture of Eve. I planned to go to a printing shop that could make me some handbill-size pictures of Eve. Of course, the picture would have to be hand-drawn, but that would be of some help.

The hotel manager recommended a printer and I went to see him. He said that he could do the job and have 50 copies of the picture by noon tomorrow. Naturally, he charged me extra for having to work all night on the project, but I figured that $1.50 was a fair price for 50 copies of a useable picture.

The next day, I went to the printer at about 10:30 AM, and the pictures were ready. I was amazed at how good a job the artist had done in capturing the likeness of Eve Van Steel. I paid for the work and took the pictures with me to find Aaron Blumberg. I hoped that I had picked a reliable employee. He was at the appointed place when I showed up a few minutes past noon.

"Hello, Aaron. I have the pictures of the girl. There are enough so that every one of your boys can have one."

"That is great, Mr. Wilson. I have recruited 20 boys to help in the search. I hope that is not too many."

"No, Aaron, that is fine with me. You recruit as many as you think that you will need up to a total of 40. More than that I think will be impossible to control.

"You are doing such a good job that I will raise your pay to four-bits a week as the boss of the operation. Here is two-bits to seal the deal."

"Thank you, Mr. Wilson. It is a pleasure to work for you! Four-bits is more than I have ever been paid for a job. I will not let you down!"

"Okay, but remember that two-bits is all that I am paying the other boys, so you should not brag about how much you are being paid. Here are 40 copies of the picture. I can get more if you need them, but do not show them around too much. We do not want to warn the kidnappers."

"Yes, Mr. Wilson. I understand. I do not know how much help the picture will be if we cannot show it around, but we will do what we can."

"Okay, Aaron, you are doing a good job. I will see you here every day until the girl is found. I am not sure just how this will work out, but I will be here at least at about noon to talk to you. Now I need to go find something to eat."

"Mr. Wilson, you will find an excellent restaurant about two blocks down that way. It is run by my father, so I know that the food is good."

"Thank you, Aaron. I will give your father's restaurant a try. I do not think that I would get a better recommendation."

Aaron grinned as he ran off to find his friends. I went toward the restaurant to try my luck. I had no trouble finding it, and I went in and sat at a table. In just moments, a pretty young girl who looked a lot like Aaron came to take my order. I was sure that she was a sister of his.

She handed me a menu that was written in Yiddish. I started to say that I did not speak the language when I discovered that I could read the menu. My mentors must have fixed my problem on the spot, and I was grateful. Not only could I read the menu, but I could recognize which of the food items would appeal to me. I had to agree with Aaron that the food was excellent, and the price was certainly reasonable. By the way, my server's name was Ruth, and Aaron was her brother.

Now that I could speak Yiddish, I was much more comfortable in this neighborhood. Even though I did not "look Jewish," the people were very nice to me when I spoke to them in Yiddish. I must say that the majority of them were also surprised that a goy could speak the language.

Well, this was not helping to find Eve, so I caught a cab back to the main business section of San Francisco and visited Mr. Van Steel. I told him what I was doing on the case, and he was pleased that I seemed to be making progress. He had not heard any more from the kidnappers, so all we could do was hope that Aaron and his friends could make rapid progress.