except Kittie Koepke, who was working away very quietly in the
kitchen, it was difficult for her to suspect anything wrong.

"Where are the girls, Kittie?" she inquired, and the other replied,
with a suggestion of foreign accent:

"Oh, they just gone out for a walk. They be back soon, I guess."

"I hope they didn't go far," Mrs. Stanlock said, concernedly. "They
ought to be very careful. It will be getting dark before very long.
It's cloudy and looks like more snow. How long have they been gone?"

"About half an hour," Kittie answered. "I went out to the drug store
to get something for my toothache, and when I came back they was
gone."

This was the first reference that Mrs. Stanlock heard regarding
Kittie's toothache, but she accepted the statement for its face value
and waited hopefully for an early return of her daughter and her
daughter's guests. Half an hour went by and the girls did not appear.
Darkness was now visibly gathering. Mrs. Stanlock was becoming uneasy
and called up her husband's office, but Mr. Stanlock had already
started for home. By the time he arrived, the good woman was almost
prostrated, so rapidly were fear and apprehension taking possession of
her.

The big coal operator scented danger at once. Immediately after
gathering the principal details of the day's occurrences, he got the
police station on the wire and communicated them to the officer in
charge.