CHAPTER XII.
A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.
The Flamingo Camp Fire arrived at the Stanlock home on Friday.Christmas was scheduled on the calendar to fall on the followingWednesday.
From the day of their arrival all of the girls were busy withChristmas preparations. Every one of them, several weeks before, hadtaken on her the task of making, buying, or assembling from partspurchased a score or more of presents. As one of the chief aims ofHiawatha Institute was to teach wealthy men's daughters how to beeconomical, it goes without saying that each of these girls had onhand no enviable Winter Task.
Madame Cleaver laid the matter very plainly before her two hundred andforty-odd girls. She had observed that the Christmas problem had atendency to make some of the students of her school sympathize withOld Scrooge. If Christmas wasn't a humbug it could very easily be madea 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 inthe giving of presents on such occasions. One of the dangers of thissort of thing is that it is likely to become a perfunctory affair withthousands taking part because they feel they have to. Also Christmasis exploited by many people. Their sympathy for the good-fellowship ofthe occasion is measured largely by the dollars and cents that itpours into their coffers.
"You should see all these drawbacks and then decide for yourselveswhether the advantages of Christmas overbalance the drawbacks. For mypart I believe that they do and I enjoy the day and the season. Butdon't take my word for it. Decide for yourselves."
The result was that everybody at the Institute got busy several weeksbefore the holiday season, and the manner in which the products ofgirl ingenuity began to pile up must have been satisfying indeed tothe head of the school. But the work was not all done when the CampFire arrived at Hollyhill, most of the girls still having enough to doto keep them busy almost up to Christmas eve.
Mr. Stanlock advised the girls not to leave the house under anyconsideration after night, and engaged three detectives, who weregiven instructions to follow and protect any of Marion's guests whomight desire to go shopping or make other journeys about the city inthe day time. Automobiles, with drivers, were within ready call forthese men at any time. It was understood, also, that no journeys wereto be made into the section of the city inhabited by the miners andtheir families.
Thus far the strike had not been attended by violence of any sort orthe destruction of property. The men had simply ceased to work and hadsubmitted their demands to the president of the company. The latterrealized at once that the employees were being led by an unusual typeof labor agitators, who might be expected to employ unusual methods togain their ends. The man who appeared to be the leader was as unusualin appearance as he was in methods pursued. He was about thirty-fiveyears old, but looked five or eight years younger. He had first beenemployed in the mines about six months before as an operator of anelectric chain-cutter machine, but he had not long been connected withthe work before his influence among the men began to be felt. To thecasual observer, he was a quiet sharp-eyed man, who seldom spoke,under ordinary circumstances, unless he was first spoken to. But hegot in communication with all his fellow workers in some mysteriousmanner and before long, in spite of the fact that he was not what ispopularly known as a "mixer," everybody from shovelers to machine menknew him as Dave, the chain-cutter man. He had the reputation of beingable to do "half again as much work as any man in the slope." AlthoughMr. Stanlock knew of the influence of this man on the miners almostfrom the day when the strike was called, the only name by which heheard 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 girlswere concerned, took place on the last Saturday and Sunday beforeChristmas. Mr. Stanlock reported the recent occurrences to the policein detail, but what the police planned to do was not communicated inthe form of hint or suggestion to the members of Flamingo Fire. If Mr.Stanlock knew, he kept the information a close secret. In harmony withhis habitual reticence on business matters, he sought to avoid furtherdiscussion of the subject.
On Saturday, however, there was added to the events of the season oneitem of great importance, which would have caused Marion no littleuneasiness could she have caught more than the most superficial hintconcerning it. This hint was so superficial that it consisted merelyof a glimpse at the address and postmark on a letter that arrived atthe house with the early mail. Marion took the letters and papers fromthe mail box, and as she was distributing them she observed theHollyhill postmark on an envelope addressed in a man's handwriting toHelen Nash.
"I wonder who it can be," the hostess mused as she laid the letter onHelen's dresser. "I didn't know that she was on specially friendlyterms with any of the boys of Hollyhill. But then you can never knowwhat to expect of her. You find out what she is going to do when shedoes it."
In spite of the paradox, no truer statement of Helen's nature had everbeen made. She said nothing to any of the girls about the letter shehad 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 nowvacant sleeping quarters of the chauffeur over the garage. A buzzerconnected 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 werewanted at any given time. Sunday morning another chauffeur, engaged byMr. Stanlock, arrived and was housed with the detectives.
It was not the duty of the latter, of course, to accompany or followanybody leaving the house unless they were called. Hence it was quitepossible for any of the guests to start out alone and make a trip toany part of the city without the protection of a watchful guard. Thepossibility that any of the guests might desire to take such a coursedid not occur to Marion or any other member of the household. It waspresumed that everybody would gladly accept such protection on everyoccasion when it seemed advisable.
As a matter of fact, however, the detectives had little to do onSaturday and Sunday. Only three of the girls made shopping trips onSaturday and all took an automobile ride Sunday afternoon. This wasthe sum total of their activities away from the Stanlock home, withthe exception of one instance, of which there was no hint until latein the afternoon.
About six o'clock Marion suddenly became mindful of the fact that shehad not seen Helen since their return from the automobile drive threehours earlier, and she began a search for her. She first went upstairsto her room to see if her friend were there. Probably she was tiredand had lain down to rest and fallen asleep. But an inspection of theroom failed to discover Helen.
Considerably puzzled, Marion now hunted up every other person in thehouse and inquired for the missing girl. Not one of them rememberedseeing her since the return from the drive. The girl hostess was nowthoroughly alarmed and her fears were speedily communicated to theothers. Everybody joined in the search and every nook and cornercapable of concealing a human form was examined.
Helen Nash was not in the house and there seemed to be no reasonableexplanation of her disappearance.
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