Even if he should call at your house, here, you need not be frightened, for I assure you the man is not at all a dangerous character." "I am glad," said Auntie Sue; and she laughed a little with a relief more genuine than her callers knew.
Detective Ross continued as if anxious to finish his unpleasant duty: "It is too bad for us to be disturbing you with this business, Miss Wakefield, and I hope you will forgive us; but, the case is like this: We traced our man to the little town of Borden, some forty miles up the river from here.

He disappeared from the hotel one night, leaving his suit-case and, apparently, everything he had with him, and not a soul that we can find has seen him since.

Of course, everybody says 'suicide.' He had been drinking heavily and acting rather queer the two or three days he was at the hotel,--it seems.

But I am not willing, yet, to accept the suicide idea as final, because it would be too easy for him to give things that appearance in order to throw us off; and I can't get away from the fact that a John-boat that was tied to the bank near the hotel managed to break loose and drift off down the river that same night.

Working on my theory, we are following down the river, trying to get trace of either the boat or the man.