Read it through once

The clue led them to a shabby little house where an old woman lived alone. Tom, with as much solemnity as though he were officiating at a state trial, demanded entrance. The old woman, with more sense of humor than prudence, consented to be questioned, and the boys, by deft and pertinacious cross-examination, extracted from her an admission that she had seen a man pass by with a small package wrapped in brown paper. It was a slender lead, but it was something; they pursued it with the ardor of hounds.