suddenly and had vacated the Vandeventer mansion and put Mary Louise
with Miss Stearne to board. Thereat, Oscar Dowd scented "news" and
called on Miss Stearne for further information. The good lady was almost
as much afraid of an editor as of an officer of the law, so under
Oscar's rapid-fire questioning she disclosed more of the dreadful charge
against Colonel Weatherby than she intended to. She even admitted the
visit of the secret service agent, but declined to give details of it.

Oscar found the agent had departed for parts unknown--perhaps to trail
the escaped Colonel--but the hotel keeper furnished him with other wisps
of information and, bunching all the rumors together and sifting the
wheat from the chaff, the editor evolved a most thrilling tale to print
in the Wednesday paper. Some of the material his own imagination
supplied; much else was obtained from irresponsible gossips who had no
foundation for their assertions. Miss Stearne was horrified to find, on
receiving her copy of the Wednesday "Beacon" that big headlines across
the front page announced: "Beverly Harbors a Criminal in Disguise!
Flight of Colonel James Weatherby when a Federal Officer Seeks to Arrest
him for a Terrible Crime!"

Then followed a mangled report of the officer's visit to Beverly on
government business, his recognition of Colonel Weatherby--who was none
other than the noted criminal, James J. Hathaway--on the street in front
of Cooper's Hotel, how the officer wired Washington for instructions and
how Hathaway, alias Weatherby, escaped in the dead of night and had so
far successfully eluded all pursuit. What crime Hathaway, alias
Weatherby, was accused of, the officer would not divulge, and the
statements of others disagreed. One report declared the Colonel had
wrecked a New York bank and absconded with enormous sums he had
embezzled; another stated he had been president of a swindling stock