headers.

THE PRESIDENT AND HIS WIFE HAVE ACTUALLY DISAPPEARED.

THE GAGGED SERVANTS OF THE WHITE HOUSE TELL
THEIR STORY.

THEY ARE IN PRISON ON GRAVE SUSPICION OF CONSPIRACY.

THE CARD OF AN EMINENT POLITICIAN FOUND IN THE
VESTIBULE OF THE EXECUTIVE MANSION.

IS A DARK POLITICAL PLOT ABOUT TO BE UNEARTHED?

The next day found the situation unchanged. Rumors of every description
ran wild. Telegrams of condolence from all the sovereigns of the world
were received at Washington by the dazed Department of State. These were
fully given to the omnivorous press. By order of the Vice-President, all
other news was for the present rigorously withheld from publication. To
this censorship the press submitted cordially. Mystery was brooding over
the land, and despair laughed detectives in the face. Men met each other
and asked only this question:

"Have they been found?"

A sad shake of the head always followed.

"No wonder," the Governor of Massachusetts was heard to say, "with
thousands of assassins coming over here every year. Even our President
was not safe. God help our country!"

At the end of a few days the full news, as far as it went, was
published, and the nation then drew its second breath. The facts about
this stupendous abduction, as given to the public by the end of the
week, were briefly these: This is the affidavit of the night sentry, who
was stationed in the vestibule of the White House.

"My name is George Henry. I am thirty-four years old. I was born in this
country. My father was a slave. It was about one-thirty last night when
I was aroused by a double rap at the main entrance. I was not asleep,
but I may have been a little sleepy. I asked who was there, and a voice
answered that the Secretary of State wished to see the President on
business of the greatest importance. I answered that the President was
in bed. He said that he must see the President immediately. Then I
thought I recognized the voice of Mr. Secretary. I opened the door and,
sure enough, Mr. Secretary entered. He had on a silk hat and the gray
overcoat he usually wears. He gave me his card, and told me to take it
right up to the President. The door was left open and I noticed it was
raining. The carriage of the Secretary was standing under the portico. I
did not see the coachman. When I bowed and turned to go upstairs there
was a strange smell in the air, and I remember nothing more."

The cross-examinat