come to his office in the morning.

From this situation Fleck's shrewd and experienced mind had been wholly
unable to make any satisfactory deductions. That something unforeseen
and unusual had happened to the Hoffs he was certain. It was the first
time on a Wednesday that they had not returned together. Whatever it was
that had happened it had depressed old Otto and had been a cause of
elation to Frederic. What could it have been? That was the poser.

Coupled with this was the annoying fact of Jane Strong's sudden
reticence. Hitherto he had found her at all times ready and eager
whenever he called on her--ready to do anything he asked her, or to tell
him everything. Why had she suddenly balked? He recalled that Dean had
hinted, and Carter, too, that the girl was becoming interested in the
younger of the Germans, yet he scouted the possibility of Jane having
gone over to the enemy's side. A girl of her stock, living with her
parents, with a brother fighting in France, never could be guilty of
disloyalty, even if she were in love. Yet how was her disinclination to
talk to be accounted for? After he had received a report that she was at
home he had waited, expecting her to call him up. When she had not done
so, he had called her. She had been positively curt and decisive. She
had nothing to say to him, she had replied, at present. Dean was safe.
She would come to his office in the morning. There was nothing for him
to do but to await her arrival.

He was expecting Carter, too. He had sent him to Nyack the evening
before as soon as he had learned of Dean's whereabouts. Carter was to
find out everything that Dean had learned and report as soon as he
could. It was Carter who arrived first.

"Dean doesn't know what happened to him, nor where the girl went," said
Carter. "They had lost the Hoffs' trail at the Garrison ferry, as he
told you over the 'phone. They had to wait there half an hour for
another boat. They scouted around West Point, and nearly three hours
afterward they picked up the trail heading toward New York. About ten
miles south of West Point they were clipping along a mountain road when
something happened. Dean is not sure whether he hit a stone in the road
or whether an automobile struck them. He was knocked unconscious and
didn't remember anything more until he came to and found the doctor
setting his arm."

"Who took him to the doctor's?"

"It was a couple, the doctor said, who explained that they ha