a block north, on the former
street, was a livery stable kept by Patrick Dinan. Naturally enough, as
a result of his close proximity to the station, Dinan knew about all the
officers and they knew him. Moreover, if any of them wanted a rig at any
time to take their family or friends for a drive, they almost invariably
went to No. 260 North Clark street to get it. So far as Dinan was
concerned, therefore, there was nothing remarkable in the fact when,
early on the morning of the day that the physician disappeared, Coughlin
called at the stable.

[Illustration: DANIEL COUGHLIN, DETECTIVE.]

"I want you to keep a rig in readiness for a friend of mine to-night,"
he said, "and I don't want you to say a word about it. When he calls for
it give it to him, and I'll be responsible for it."

"All right," was Dinan's response. "I will have one on hand." The
liveryman said afterward that he did not pay much attention to the
remark that he was to "keep still about it," from the fact that Coughlin
was often in the habit of hiring cabs and rigs to do detective work. In
fact, he did not pay any attention to it at all, as there was nothing
out of the common in his manner or conversation.

[Illustration: LIVERYMAN DINAN'S STABLE WHERE THE WHITE HORSE AND BUGGY
WERE HIRED.]

[Illustration: THE WHITE HORSE AND BUGGY.]

The detective's "friend" was on hand at the livery stable a few minutes
after seven that evening. Seen under the dim gas-light; he was a man
about thirty-five years old, of dark complexion, with a black mustache
and a four weeks' growth of beard. He was rather undersized, and weighed
in the neighborhood of 125 pounds. A small, soft felt hat, with the
front pulled down well over his eyes, covered his head, and a seedy,
faded gray or yellow overcoat was buttoned up close around him. A few
moments before, Dinan's blacksmith had ordered a high-strung bay horse
to be hitched up, and while this was being done, the two men strolled up
the street to an adjacent cigar store. While they were absent, the
stranger entered, and going to the back of the stable, told the hostler
that he had come for the rig that "Dan Coughlin had ordered for him."
Dinan returned at this juncture, and in reply to a question, ordered his
employe to hitch up the white horse. When the stranger saw the color of
the animal, he objected violently. He did not want it, and expressed a
preference for a carriage horse that stood in its stall. He was tol