an hour before and the disappointed audience, after
listening impatiently to the extempore speakers who had tried to fill
the time until the principals in the joint debate should appear, had
gone home doubtful of the morrow.

The auto stopped outside the gate in front of Van Deusen Hall and one of
the chauffeurs, still muffled to the eyes, helped Gertrude to the
ground. John Allingham had stepped out first. But before he could
remonstrate with them for leaving a lady on the street alone and past
midnight, in fact, just as he was beginning to ask angrily, why they did
not drive in, the man slammed the door, jumped to his seat, and the cab
glided away.

"And we haven't the faintest idea who they are?" said Miss Van Deusen.
"They didn't have any number--"

"If it wasn't left with the wreck," answered Allingham, "and they were,
doubtless, too sharp for that. They have taken it off and hidden it. But
I shall have this thing looked into. A kidnaping affair like this can't
fail of discovery."

"But neither of us could describe the men," returned the young woman. "I
couldn't--could you? They were thoroughly disguised in their big coats
and caps; and mine did not speak, only that once."

"Nor mine, except at the wreck," said Allingham. "Nor do I know of an
electric cab in Roma. But nevertheless, you must go in."

He walked up to the door with her. The house was all alight, her cousin
waiting in the greatest alarm. For there had been much telephoning
around the city when the speakers failed to appear at the meeting, and
the utmost consternation had been felt at their disappearance.

Jessica Craig met her cousin with a sob, and a demand for explanations
in the same breath. But Gertrude was insisting that Allingham should
step in and rest, late as it was.

"He is hurt," she explained to her cousin. "He must have something done.
Telephone to Dr. Dean immediately, James."

It did not take much urging to induce her opponent to enter the
hospitable mansion, for he was now weak and faint. Once inside, the warm
atmosphere proved too much and he had to be helped to a sofa. Stimulants
were brought and administered, and Gertrude herself assisted in getting
him to the library to await the doctor.

When that functionary appeared he found a severe scalp wound and a pulse
which bounded so high that he ordered him to his own carriage, bearing
him off to the Allingham home as soon as he could apply the requisite
number of plasters an