第7章

"I say, Pudgy," he cried, as he took the steps two at a time for the second floor, "here's a wire from Benham saying Gail didn't come on that train and asking when he's to expect her.""Impossible!" ejaculated Mrs.Prim."I certainly saw her aboard the train myself.Impossible!"Jonas Prim was a man of action.Within half an hour he had set in motion such wheels as money and influence may cause to revolve in search of some clew to the whereabouts of the missing Abigail, and at the same time had reported the theft of jewels and money from his home; but in doing this he had learned that other happenings no less remarkable in their way had taken place in Oakdale that very night.

The following morning all Oakdale was thrilled as its fascinated eves devoured the front page of Oakdale's or-dinarily dull daily.Never had Oakdale experienced a plethora of home-grown thrills; but it came as near to it that morning, doubtless, as it ever had or ever will.

Not since the cashier of The Merchants and Farmers Bank committed suicide three years past had Oakdale been so wrought up, and now that historic and classical event paled into insignificance in the glaring brilliancy of a series of crimes and mysteries of a single night such as not even the most sanguine of Oakdale's thrill lovers could have hoped for.

There was, first, the mysterious disappearance of Abi-gail Prim, the only daughter of Oakdale's wealthiest cit-izen; there was the equally mysterious robbery of the Prim home.Either one of these would have been suffi-cient to have set Oakdale's multitudinous tongues wag-ging for days; but they were not all.Old John Baggs, the city's best known miser, had suffered a murderous as-sault in his little cottage upon the outskirts of town, and was even now lying at the point of death in The Samaritan Hospital.That robbery had been the motive was amply indicated by the topsy-turvy condition of the contents of the three rooms which Baggs called home.

As the victim still was unconscious no details of the crime were obtainable.Yet even this atrocious deed had been capped by one yet more hideous.

Reginald Paynter had for years been looked upon half askance and yet with a certain secret pride by Oak-dale.He was her sole bon vivant in the true sense of the word, whatever that may be.He was always spoken of in the columns of The Oakdale Tribune as 'that well known man-about-town,' or 'one of Oakdale's most prom-inent clubmen.' Reginald Paynter had been, if not the only, at all events the best dressed man in town.His clothes were made in New York.This in itself had been sufficient to have set him apart from all the other males of Oakdale.He was widely travelled, had an indepen-dent fortune, and was far from unhandsome.For years he had been the hope and despair of every Oakdale mother with marriageable daughters.The Oakdale fathers, however, had not been so keen about Reginald.

Men usually know more about the morals of men than do women.There were those who, if pressed, would have conceded that Reginald had no morals.

But what place has an obituary in a truthful tale of adventure and mystery! Reginald Paynter was dead.His body had been found beside the road just outside the city limits at mid-night by a party of automobilists re-turning from a fishing trip.The skull was crushed back of the left ear.The position of the body as well as the marks in the road beside it indicated that the man had been hurled from a rapidly moving automobile.The fact that his pockets had been rifled led to the assumption that he had been killed and robbed before being dumped upon the road.

Now there were those in Oakdale, and they were many, who endeavored to connect in some way these several events of horror, mystery, and crime.In the first place it seemed quite evident that the robbery at the Prim home, the assault upon Old Baggs, and the mur-der of Paynter had been the work of the same man; but how could such a series of frightful happenings be in any way connected with the disappearance of Abigail Prim?

Of course there were many who knew that Abigail and Reginald were old friends; and that the former had, on frequent occasions, ridden abroad in Reginald's French roadster, that he had escorted her to parties and been, at various times, a caller at her home; but no less had been true of a dozen other perfectly respectable young ladies of Oakdale.Possibly it was only Abigail's added misfortune to have disappeared upon the eve of the night of Reginald's murder.

But later in the day when word came from a nearby town that Reginald had been seen in a strange touring car with two unknown men and a girl, the gossips com-menced to wag their heads.It was mentioned, casually of course, that this town was a few stations along the very road upon which Abigail had departed the previous afternoon for that destination which she had not reached.

It was likewise remarked that Reginald, the two strange men and the GIRL had been first noticed after the time of arrival of the Oakdale train! What more was needed?

Absolutely nothing more.The tongues ceased wagging in order that they might turn hand-springs.

Find Abigail Prim, whispered some, and the mystery will be solved.There were others charitable enough to assume that Abigail had been kidnapped by the same men who had murdered Paynter and wrought the other lesser deeds of crime in peaceful Oakdale.The Oakdale Tribune got out an extra that afternoon giving a resume of such evidence as had appeared in the regular edition and hinting at all the numerous possibilities suggested by such matter as had come to hand since.Even fear of old Jonas Prim and his millions had not been enough to entirely squelch the newspaper instinct of the Trib-une's editor.Never before had he had such an oppor-tunity and he made the best of it, even repeating the vague surmises which had linked the name of Abigail to the murder of Reginald Paynter.