Who's sorry now?

that either. ”But I did think about who would sort. I think the city fathers should pay Mr. McBride to sort it.”
    Robert was suddenly discouraged by his plan. Other people he would be approaching would ask the same questions, and probably others he hadn’t thought of. He decided to consult with the residents of Grace and Favor for what else he might be asked, and suggestions for replies.
    When dinner was done that evening, he outlined the problem of the locks. ”If there are combination locks...”
    Phoebe Twinkle interrupted to ask what that term meant.
    ”The kinds that have numbers around in a circle and you turn the dial to your numbers to open them.”
    ”Does everybody have to have a different combination that the porter has to remember?” Phoebe asked.
    ”I suppose so. That’s the problem in a nutshell. There will be at least two or three hundred boxes. That’s about how many people still live in Voorburg, I’d guess,” Robert said.
    ”I don’t think there are that many,” Lily said. ”Haven’t you noticed how many businesses and houses have been abandoned by people going to California?”
    ”Okay, I’ll check on this, but it’s not really the problem I’m currently worried about.”
    Phoebe, who had raised the question of combinations, suddenly stood up and came as close to shouting as a lady could. ”I’ve had a Eureka idea. Give the three snoops one combination for all three of their boxes, then give everyone one of two combinations.”
    ”How will that help?” Robert asked.
    Lily said, ”Robert, you’re being uncharacteristically dim-witted. The three old ladies will soon discover that their combinations are the same as one another’s and assume, incorrectly, that everybody else’s are the same. While in fact, half of them are another combination and the other half are a third combination. The porter can certainly remember all three.”
    Phoebe chimed in again. ”Have the old ladies’ boxes in the middle, set up vertically. And one combination for the boxes to the right of them and immediately above them—the other combination below them and to the left.”
    Everybody at the table except Robert was happy with the solution. But he was a little sorry that two young women figured out what he couldn’t. Harry Harbinger hadn’t thought this out, nor had the stationmaster, except to ask questions about the locks.
    All three of them failed to come up with a possible solution. And the women had had several suggestions. This was a concept that scared Robert.
     

CHAPTER THREE
    Wednesday, April 19
     
    ROBERT HAD THE SENSE that this postal pro j ect wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d originally imagined. He needed to know the approximate number of people who currently lived in Voorburg-on-Hudson and outlying areas that were still being farmed. How could he find this out?
    Where would Edwin McBride sort the mail? Not on the middle of the floor of the train station. That would create an equally chaotic situation as there was now.
    Then there were the combination locks to think of. Even if McBride had a table near the boxes, he’d have to have all the doors open at the same time to sort them into the right boxes.
    And what would happen to big packages, like the one he’d had shipped to himself with Lily’s birthday present?
    The post office boxes couldn’t be that big or they’d take up all the walls of the station.
    Who would know the answers to this multitude of queries?
    He’d have to go back first to Harry Harbinger. After all, Harry and his brother had to make the sorting area and allow for the hardware.
    When he caught up with Harry Wednesday morning, Robert was surprised that the town’s best handyman had already given Robert’s ideas some thought.
    ”I don’t like the idea of combination locks built into the doors. For one thing, it’s expensive. And nobody knows yet what this is going to cost.”
    ”What’s an alternative?” Robert asked.
    ”Well, there are keys, of course. But people would lose them and the lock would need to be changed on a lot of them from time to time. My brother and I won’t agree to be responsible for this.”
    ”Is there another alternative?” Robert whined.
    ”Oh, sure.Hardware that could take a combination lock. A piece of metal with a hole in it sticking out on the door, and another on the strip that separates the boxes. The person renting the box would supply for himself or herself a combination lock to slip through both