e until he opened it--the room where he had
first seen the image which had really been the source of all his
misfortunes. The safe door was closed, but about the floor lay a
number of loose papers, as though the safe had been hastily
ransacked. The ebony box which had contained the idol was gone. Some
of the papers were torn, which seemed to show that this had been
done by the owner in preparing for hasty flight rather than by a
thief, who would merely rummage through them. Wilson picked up an
envelope bearing a foreign postmark. It was addressed to Dr. Carl
Sorez, and bore the number of the street where this house was located.
The stamp was of the small South American Republic of Carlina and
the postmark "Bogova." Wilson thrust the empty envelope in his
pocket.

Coming out of here, he next began a systematic examination of every
room on that floor. In the boudoir where he had found clothes for the
girl, he discovered her old garments still hanging where she had
placed them to dry. Her dress was spread across the back of a chair,
her stockings were below them, and her tiny mud-bespattered shoes on
the floor. They made him start as though he had suddenly come upon the
girl herself. He crossed the room and almost timidly placed his hands
upon the folds of the gown. These things were so intimate a part of
her that it was almost like touching her hand. It brought up to him
very vividly the picture of her as she stood shivering with the cold,
all dripping wet before the flames. His throat ached at the
recollection. It had never occurred to him that she might vanish like
this unless, as he had half feared, he might return to find Sorez
dead. This new turn left him more bewildered than ever. He went into
every room of the house from attic to cellar and returned again to the
study with only this fact of her disappearance to reward him for his
efforts of the last three hours.

Had this early morning intruder abducted them both, or had they
successfully hidden themselves until after he left and then, in a
panic, fled? Had the priest, fearing for Wilson's life, thrown him
into the carriage rather than have on his hands a possible murder? Or
after the priest had gone did Sorez find him and take this way to rid
himself of an influence that might destroy his power over the girl?
This last would have been impossible of accomplishment if the girl
herself knew of it. The other theories seemed improbable. At any rate,
there was little