and her
toilet articles arranged in neat order on the dresser. Chambermaid did
that, for Alora is not neat. Proving that her stuff was just strewn
around and the orderly maid put things straight. Which leads to the
supposition that Alora was led away rather suddenly."

"Oh, do you think so?"

"She left the door ajar, but took the key. Intended, of course, to lock
her room, but was so agitated by what she saw or heard that she forgot
and just walked away."

"But no one saw her leave the hotel," observed Mary Louise.

"Then she didn't pass through the office, but through the less used
Ladies' Entrance at the side."

"That was not unlocked, they told me, until after seven o'clock."

"Then she left by the servants' entrance."

"The servants'!"

"Quite likely. You'll say she didn't know anything about it, or where
it was; but the fact remains that Alora left the hotel. I'd like to see
that chambermaid. I believe you told me she comes on duty at six
o'clock in the morning. All right. I'll catch her at six a. m.
to-morrow."

"The detective interviewed her," stated Colonel.

"I know, and she answered all his questions. My questions will be
different. If Alora used the servants' entrance, she went out with a
servant or with someone who knew the ways of the hotel intimately."

"I don't see that," objected Mary Louise.

"Nor do I, but there lies our trail. Alora didn't pass out through the
office, nor did she make her exit through the less public Ladies'
Entrance. There are only two other ways to get out of here: through the
baggage door and by the servants' entrance at the rear, which lets into
an alley. The head porter will know whether Alora went out the baggage
door, but as it's usually very high--on a level with the platform of a
baggage-wagon--I don't believe she jumped it. That leaves the servants'
entrance as the probable exit for our missing one, and as she was a
perfect stranger to the arrangements of this hotel, she couldn't have
gone that way unless someone guided her. So our course is clear, Mary
Louise. Find out who enticed Alora from the hotel and it won't be
difficult to trace her and discover what has become of her."

"Enticed, Josie?"

"Had force been used, she would have screamed and attracted attention.
Let us say she was decoyed."

"You think, then, that Alora was kidnapped?"

"Let us reason. The girl couldn't have had an enemy in Chicago,
according to her history, for she was only eleven