e hotel occasioned no surprise. A Prince Said Abu-el-Ahzab had
been residing for some time in the apartments below those occupied
by Mr. J. J. Oppner, and the members of his numerous suite are
familiar to all residents. He and his following have disappeared,
but a cash payment of all outstanding accounts has been left
behind. It has been discovered that the light was cut off from one
of the rooms occupied by the ci-devant prince, and the police are
at work upon several other important clues which point beyond doubt
to the fact that "Prince Said Abu-el-Ahzab" was none other than
Severac Bablon.

During the next twenty-four hours the entire habitable world touched by
cable service literally gasped at this latest stroke of the notorious
Severac Bablon. Despite the frantic and unflagging labours of every man
that Scotland Yard could spare to the case nothing was accomplished. The
wife or nearest kin of each of the missing men had received a typed
card:

"Fear nothing. No harm shall befall a guest of Severac Bablon."

These cards, which could be traced to no maker or stationer, all had
been posted at Charing Cross.

Then, in the stop press of the _Gleaner's_ final edition, appeared the
following:

"Baron Hague, Sir L. Jesson, Messrs. Rohscheimer and Oppner have
returned to their homes."

It is improbable that in the history of the newspaper business, even
during war-time, there has ever been such a rush made for the papers as
that which worked the trade to the point of general exhaustion on the
following morning.

Without pausing here to consider the morning's news, let us return to
the Chancery Legal Incorporated Credit Society Bank.

"Move along here, please. Move on. Move on."

Again the street is packed with emotional humanity. But what a different
scene is this, although in its essentials so similar. For every face is
flushed with excitement--joyful excitement. As once before, they press
eagerly on toward the bank entrance; but this morning the doors are
_open_. Almost every member of that crushed and crushing assembly holds
a copy of the morning paper. Every man and every woman in the crowd
knows that the missing financiers have declined, firmly, to afford any
information whatever respecting their strange adventure--that they have
refused, all four of them, point blank either to substantiate or to deny
the sensational story of Messrs. Macready and M