Robert reached home about one o\'clock, which was the usual hour that Mrs. Vernon and himself had lunch. He found the lady had not yet returned.

"I am in no hurry, Martha," he said. "I will go into the office and write some letters."

The letters took nearly an hour to finish, and by that time our hero felt decidedly hungry. Mrs. Vernon had told him never to wait over half an hour for a meal, so he now ordered lunch for himself alone.

"That meeting probably took longer than expected," he thought. "Perhaps she is having a whole lot of trouble with the other stockholders. I wish I could help her."

Slowly the afternoon wore away, and still Mrs. Vernon did not put in an appearance. Robert went out for another walk, and did not come back until six o\'clock, the regular dinner hour.

"Not back yet, Martha?" was his first question, on returning.

"No, Mr. Frost."

"It is queer."

"Shall I have dinner served?"

"No, I will wait half an hour."

"It\'s too bad. The roast will be overdone, I am afraid."

"Well, it probably cannot be helped."

Robert drifted into the library, and selecting a volume of Cooper\'s works, sat down in an easy chair to read. But he could not fasten his attention on the story, and soon cast the volume aside.

"Is it possible that anything has happened to Mrs. Vernon?" was the question which he asked himself over and over again.

He thought of Frederic Vernon and Dr. Remington, and of what Dick Marden had said.

"Would Frederic Vernon dare to do anything?" he asked himself.

The evening passed slowly and painfully. As hour after hour went by Robert began to pace the floor nervously. He felt "in his bones," as the saying is, that something was wrong, but he could not exactly imagine what.

When the clock struck eleven he could stand the suspense no longer. He summoned Martha.

"I am going out to look for Mrs. Vernon," he said. "If she comes in in the meantime tell her not to worry about me."

"Very well," answered the maid.

Robert had decided to call first at the Masonic Temple, a large business building situated in the heart of Chicago. It was in the Temple that the offices were located which Mrs. Vernon had started to visit early that morning.

He rode the greater part of the distance and reached the office building shortly before midnight. The ground floor was still open, but the great majority of the offices were dark.

Approaching one of the hallmen he asked about the meeting of the manufacturing company.

"I don\'t know anything about that," was the answer. "But Joe Dolan does. I\'ll call him."

"The meeting broke up about noon," said Joe Dolan, when summoned.

"Do you remember Mrs. Vernon?"

"I don\'t know the lady by name. How was she dressed?"

As well as he was able, Robert described the lady\'s appearance.

"Oh, yes, I know her now," cried Joe Dolan. "There were only two ladies, you see, and the other was short and stout."

"Well, what became of Mrs. Vernon?"

"She went out ahead of the others."

"Alone?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what direction she took?"

"I do not."

"Are you sure she did not come back?"

"I didn\'t see anything of her, and I\'ve been around ever since."

"Are the offices locked up?"

"Yes, and have been ever since five o\'clock. No one but Mr. Smith has been in them since three o\'clock."

"Then she must certainly have gone somewhere else."

"Do you calculate there is anything wrong?" said the janitor, with interest.

"I don\'t know what to think. She said she would return home from here, and she hadn\'t got back up to eleven o\'clock."

"That looks bad."

"Of course something else may have come up that is keeping her away."

"That is so."

Thanking the janitor for his information, Robert left the Masonic Temple and walked up the street. He scarcely ............