make it the most
conspicuous sensation. A line of larger and blacker type told of a
change in the battle line on the west front and, where the margin might
have been, was the bulletin of some sensation in a local divorce suit.
Alan was some time in finding the small print which went with the
millionaire ship owner heading; and when he found it, he discovered
that most of the space was devoted to the description of Corvet's share
in the development of shipping on the lakes and the peculiarity of his
past life instead of any definite announcement concerning his fate.

The other papers printed almost identical items under small head-type
at the bottom of their first pages; these items stated that Benjamin
Corvet, the senior but inactive partner of the great shipping firm of
Corvet, Sherrill, and Spearman, whose "disappearance" had been made the
subject of sensational rumor, "is believed by his partner, Mr. Henry
Spearman, to have simply gone away for a rest," and that no anxiety was
felt concerning him. Alan found no mention of himself nor any of the
circumstances connected with Corvet's disappearance of which Sherrill
had told him.

Alan threw the papers away. There was a car line two blocks west,
Sherrill had said, which would take him within a short distance of the
house on Astor Street; but that neighborhood of fashion where the
Sherrills--and now Alan himself--lived was less than a half hour's walk
from the down-town district and, in the present turmoil of his
thoughts, he wanted to be moving.

Spearman, he reflected as he walked north along the avenue, plainly had
dictated the paragraphs he just had read in the papers. Sherrill, Alan
knew, had desired to keep the circumstances regarding Corvet from
becoming public; and without Sherrill's agreement concealment would
have been impossible, but it was Spearman who had checked the
suspicions of outsiders and determined what they must believe; and, by
so doing, he had made it impossible for Alan to enroll aid from the
newspapers or the police. Alan did not know whether he might have
found it expedient to seek publicity; but now he had not a single proof
of anything he could tell. For Sherrill, naturally, had retained the
papers Corvet had left. Alan could not hope to obtain credence from
Sherrill and, without Sherrill's aid, he could not obtain credence from
any one else.

Was there, then, no one whom Alan could tell of his encounter with
Spearman in Corvet's h