Considerably puzzled, Marion now hunted up every other person in the
house and inquired for the missing girl. Not one of them remembered
seeing her since the return from the drive. The girl hostess was now
thoroughly alarmed and her fears were speedily communicated to the
others. Everybody joined in the search and every nook and corner
capable of concealing a human form was examined.

Helen Nash was not in the house and there seemed to be no reasonable
explanation of her disappearance.

* * * * *




CHAPTER XIII.

"FIND HER, OR I'LL FIND HER MYSELF."


Mr. Stanlock came home from a meeting of mining stockholders about the
time when consternation over the disappearance of Helen was at its
height. After the particulars of the affair, so far as they were
known, had been explained to him, he asked:

"Where are the detectives?"

The question fell with something of a shock on the ears of the
assembled searchers who had just completed a second fruitless hunt
through the house. Why had they not thought of the trio of "mystery