ed the advertisement to Mrs. Richardson upon his arrival at the
house, and she agreed with him that her lovely charge must be the Miss
Huntington referred to in the paper.

The girl continued to be in a very critical state. She was burning with
fever, was unconscious of her surroundings, was constantly calling upon
"Belle" and "Wilhelm" to "help her--to save her."

"She is not so well," the physician said, gravely, as he felt the
bounding pulse, "her fever is increasing. I shall go at once to Auburn
avenue and inform her relatives of her condition."

CHAPTER II.

V. D. H. IS CLAIMED BY HER FRIENDS.

Doctor Norton easily found the residence of Violet Huntington's friends
on Auburn avenue, and as he mounted the massive granite steps and rang
the bell of the handsome house he read the name of Mencke on the silver
door-plate.

"Aha! Germans," mused the physician, "wealthy people, too, I judge."

A trim servant in white cap and apron answered his summons, and, upon
inquiring for Mrs. Mencke, he was invited to enter.

He was ushered into a handsome drawing-room, where, upon every hand,
evidence of wealth met his eye, and after giving his card to the girl,
he sat down to await the appearance of the lady of the house.

She did not tax his patience long; the "M. D." upon his card had
evidently impressed Mrs. Mencke with the belief that the physician had
come to bring her some tidings of the beautiful girl who had so
strangely disappeared from her home a few days previous. She came into
the room presently, followed by a man whom Doctor Norton surmised to be
her husband.

Mrs. Mencke was a large, rather fine-looking woman of perhaps thirty
years. Her bearing was proud and self-possessed, and, while there was a
somewhat anxious expression on her face, she nevertheless impressed the
kind-hearted doctor as a person of selfish nature, and lacking in
womanly sympathy.

Her husband was a portly man, dark-complexioned, and German in
appearance. There was a cunning, rather sinister expression on his face;
he had small, black eyes, and a full, shaggy beard, while a pompous
swagger in his bearing betrayed an arrogant disposition and excessive
pride of purse.

"Doctor Norton," Mrs. Mencke began, without waiting for him to state the
errand that had brought him there, "have you come to bring me news of my
sister? Was she in that fatal car--is she injured--dead?"

"If my surmises are correct, and Miss Violet Huntington i