A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.
The Flamingo Camp Fire arrived at the Stanlock home on Friday.
Christmas was scheduled on the calendar to fall on the following
Wednesday.
From the day of their arrival all of the girls were busy with
Christmas preparations. Every one of them, several weeks before, had
taken on her the task of making, buying, or assembling from parts
purchased a score or more of presents. As one of the chief aims of
Hiawatha Institute was to teach wealthy men's daughters how to be
economical, it goes without saying that each of these girls had on
hand no enviable Winter Task.
Madame Cleaver laid the matter very plainly before her two hundred and
forty-odd girls. She had observed that the Christmas problem had a
tendency to make some of the students of her school sympathize with
Old Scrooge. If Christmas wasn't a humbug it could very easily be made
a nuisance.
Madame Cleaver agreed with them in this respect. She told them so.
Furthermore, she added:
"I don't wish you to understand that there is anything compulsory in
the giving of presents on such occasions. One of the dangers of this
sort of thing is that it is likely to become a perfunctory affair with
thousands taking part because they feel they have to. Also Christmas
is exploited by many people. Their sympathy for the good-fellowship of
the occasion is measured largely by the dollars and cents that it
pours into their coffers.
"You should see all these drawbacks and then decide for yourselves
whether the advantages of Christmas overbalance the drawbacks. For my
part I believe that they do and I enjoy the day and the season. But
don't take my word for it. Decide for yourselves."
The result was that everybody at the Institute got busy several weeks
before the holiday season, and the manner in which the products of
girl ingenuity began to pile up must have been satisfying indeed to
the head of the school. But the work was not all done when the Camp
Fire arrived at Hollyhill, most of the girls still having enough to do
to keep them busy almost up to Christmas eve.
Mr. Stanlock advised the girls not to leave the house under any
consideration after night, and engaged three detectives, who were
given instructions to follow and protect any of Marion's guests who
might desire to go shopping or make other journeys about the city in
the day time. Automobiles, with drivers, were within ready call for
these men at any time. It was understood, also, that no journeys were
to be made into the section of the city inhabited by the miners and
their families.
Thus far the strike had not been attended by violence of any sort or
the destruction of property. The men had simply ceased to work and had
submitted their demands to the president of the company. The latter
realized at once that the employees were being led by an unusual type
of labor agitators, who might be expected to employ unusual methods to
gain their ends. The man who appeared to be the leader was as unusual
in appearance as he was in methods pursued. He was about thirty-five
years old, but looked five or eight years younger. He had first been
employed in the mines about six months before as an operator of an
electric chain-cutter machine, but he had not long been connected with
the work before his influence among the men began to be felt. To the
casual observer, he was a quiet sharp-eyed man, who seldom spoke,
under ordinary circumstances, unless he was first spoken to. But he
got in communication with all his fellow workers in some mysterious
manner and before long, in spite of the fact that he was not what is
popularly known as a "mixer," everybody from shovelers to machine men
knew him as Dave, the chain-cutter man. He had the reputation of being
able to do "half again as much work as any man in the slope." Although
Mr. Stanlock knew of the influence of this man on the miners almost
from the day when the strike was called, the only name by which he
heard him spoken of during almost the entire period of the tie-up was
"Dave, the chain-cutter man."
Little of special interest relative to the strike, so far as the girls
were concerned, took place on the last Saturday and Sunday before
Christmas. Mr. Stanlock reported the recent occurrences to the police
in detail, but what the police planned to do was not communicated in
the form of hint or suggestion to the members of Flamingo Fire. If Mr.
Stanlock knew, he kept the information a close secret. In harmony with
his habitual reticence on business matters, he sought to avoid further
discussion of the subject.
On Saturday, however, there was added to the events of the season one
item of great importance, which would have caused Marion no little
uneasiness could she have caught more than the most superficial hint
concerning it. This hint was so superficial that it consisted merely
of a glimpse at the address and postmark on a letter that arrived at
the house with the early mail. Marion took the letters and papers from
the mail box, and as she was distributing them she observed the
Hollyhill postmark on an envelope addressed in a man's handwriting to
Helen Nash.
"I wonder who it can be," the hostess mused as she laid the letter on
Helen's dresser. "I didn't know that she was on specially friendly
terms with any of the boys of Hollyhill. But then you can never know
what to expect of her. You find out what she is going to do when she
does it."
In spite of the paradox, no truer statement of Helen's nature had ever
been made. She said nothing to any of the girls about the letter she
had received and if subsequent events had not recalled the incident,
Marion probably would have forgotten it entirely.
The three detectives employed by Mr. Stanlock were housed in the now
vacant sleeping quarters of the chauffeur over the garage. A buzzer
connected with the house and an agreed signal system of "1," "2," "3"
served as a means of quick information as to how many of the men were
wanted at any given time. Sunday morning another chauffeur, engaged by
Mr. Stanlock, arrived and was housed with the detectives.
It was not the duty of the latter, of course, to accompany or follow
anybody leaving the house unless they were called. Hence it was quite
possible for any of the guests to start out alone and make a trip to
any part of the city without the protection of a watchful guard. The
possibility that any of the guests might desire to take such a course
did not occur to Marion or any other member of the household. It was
presumed that everybody would gladly accept such protection on every
occasion when it seemed advisable.
As a matter of fact, however, the detectives had little to do on
Saturday and Sunday. Only three of the girls made shopping trips on
Saturday and all took an automobile ride Sunday afternoon. This was
the sum total of their activities away from the Stanlock home, with
the exception of one instance, of which there was no hint until late
in the afternoon.
About six o'clock Marion suddenly became mindful of the fact that she
had not seen Helen since their return from the automobile drive three
hours earlier, and she began a search for her. She first went upstairs
to her room to see if her friend were there. Probably she was tired
and had lain down to rest and fallen asleep. But an inspection of the
room failed to discover Helen.
Considerably puzzled, Marion now hunted up every other person in the
house and inquired for the missing girl. Not one of them remembered
seeing her since the return from the drive. The girl hostess was now
thoroughly alarmed and her fears were speedily communicated to the
others. Everybody joined in the search and every nook and corner
capable of concealing a human form was examined.
Helen Nash was not in the house and there seemed to be no reasonable
explanation of her disappearance.
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