ra. "I may as well
see what it is."

"Oh, run along. It may be something urgent," suggested Cora. "I can
slip back into the dance room when I want to, or I can wait here. You
won't be long."

Ed followed the waiter indoors, then went into the office as he
directed. He was not absent more than ten minutes, but when he
returned to the porch Cora was gone!

CHAPTER XVII

MISSING

"I left her here ten minutes ago!" gasped Ed, trembling with
excitement, as he related the news.

"She must have gone inside," replied Jack, equally alarmed. "We must
look before we tell the others."

"No, give the alarm first, and look afterward," insisted Ed. "The
thing that counts is to find her; people's nerves may rest afterwards.
I think we had best call the hotel manager. That message sent me was a
fake. It was an envelope addressed to me, and contained nothing but a
blank paper. It was a game to get me away from Cora!"

"Perhaps you are right. But I do hate to alarm every one. I know that
Cora would feel that way herself. What's this?" and Jack stooped to
the porch floor. "Her fan!"

Ed almost snatched the trinket from Jack's hand. "The chain is
broken," he said, "and she had it on when I left her. I remember how
she dropped the fan to her side and it hung there."

Here was a new proof of something very wrong--the chain was broken in
two places.

"Don't let us waste a moment," begged Ed, starting for the hotel
office. "I will speak with the manager first."

Jack felt as if something was gripping at his heart. Cora gone! Could
it be possible that anything had really happened to her? Could she
have been kidnapped? No, she must be somewhere with some of the girls.

He followed Ed mechanically into the office. The manager was at the
desk looking over the register.

"A young lady has just disappeared from the west-end porch," began Ed,
rather awkwardly, "and I fear that something strange has happened to
her. I was called in here by this fake message"--he produced a slip of
blank paper--"and while I was in here she disappeared."

"No one else gone?" asked the manager with a questioning smile.

"Why, no," replied Ed indignantly. "I was with Miss Kimball almost up
to the moment she disappeared."

Jack stepped forward. "I know that my sister would not give us one
moment's anxiety were it in her power to avoid it," he said. "She is
the most thoughtful girl in the world."

The manager was looki