obey, though full
of wonder at this unprecedented favor. As soon as he had taken a pull he
felt dizzy. Two or three more black figures appeared like ghosts before
his eyes. He thought he struck out or tried to run to the coach, he
didn't know which. A queer odor mounted to his head. Then he lost
consciousness. He came to, early in the morning, a little after four,
and staggered to the stable. The team was not there. He fell into a
stupor of despair. About an hour after, an acquaintance of his drove the
span up, and said they had been found unchecked, grazing near the
Smithsonian Institute. He supposed that they had run away. The
Secretary's coachman had then given the fellow five dollars for his
services and to hold his tongue. He was afraid of being discharged. He
had just heard of the disappearance of the President and he feared being
implicated in the affair. After the name of the person who found the
horses was taken down, and after a searching cross-examination, the
frightened man was sent away to rest, with assurance of continued favor.
Subsequent examinations failed to find any traces of the catastrophe in
the coupe. It had been carefully cleaned when it came back to the
stable. There was no blood visible.

This completes the whole of the testimony and information that was
received or discovered by the united efforts of all the detectives in
America up to the fourteenth of the month. Clews had been manufactured
and followed with desperate rapidity, but to no avail. Numberless
arrests had been made, but no one could be legally held for high treason
against the Chief Executive. All that was known was this: that some bold
villain had successfully personated the Secretary of State; that he had
gulled three servants by a close resemblance; that he, with others,
probably, had forcibly carried the President and his wife from their
very beds, leaving them but scant time to take the necessary articles of
clothing; that these abductors had audaciously used the State carriage
for their nefarious purpose; that they had left absolutely no trace
behind; and, that moreover, in the darkness of the fog and rain no
further track could be found of the direction they took. They could not
have gone by train; so every house in the city of Washington and in the
suburbs, to the distance of fifteen miles or more, had been searched in
vain. A like systematic investigation was carried on along the river, to
the bay, in search of anything s