ay in question. Extraordinary as it may seem, Capt. Schaack
accepted this story without question, and contented himself with
ordering the detective to go out and find the man, and bring him in for
examination. Coughlin promised to do so. Two days went by, and he failed
to report. Schaack then sent for him again, and asked him if he had
found his friend. Coughlin answered in the negative, and said that he
did not know where to lay his hands on him, unless he happened to run
across him in a saloon. This was not satisfactory.

[Illustration: DETECTIVE MICHAEL WHALEN.]

"You go and find that man," said Schaack, "or it may be bad for you."

Detective Michael Whalen was also assigned to assist his brother officer
in the search, and day after day, they tramped the streets in sunshine
and rain; and scoured the saloons for the mythical "Smith."

While this hunt was going on, Capt. Schaack had gone one evening to the
livery stable, procured the white horse and buggy, and, having driven to
the residence of the Conklins, asked the lady of the house whether she
identified the animal and vehicle as the same that had taken the
physician away. Later on there was a wide difference in the reports of
this proceeding. The captain insisted that Mrs. Conklin declared that
she utterly failed to recognize the rig, and that she said positively
that it was not the same horse, as the one driven by the mysterious
stranger--was better looking, and a faster traveler. On the other hand
Mrs. Conklin was empathic in the declaration that she had said nothing
of the kind, but had told the official that there was a close
resemblance between the two rigs. Schaack also went to Dinan and
obtained a description of the supposed Smith, and again this
description, as taken from Schaack's notes, was as different from what
the livery-man had told everybody else as light is from darkness, and
tallied in no particular with that narrated by Mrs. Conklin and Frank
Scanlan. That night, when Coughlin and Whalen presented themselves with
the usual report that Smith had not been found, the captain acquainted
them with the result of his enquiries, expressed himself as satisfied
that there was no connection between the two rigs, and ordered them to
drop the Cronin case and report for general duty.

"Its lucky for you," he said to Coughlin, "that it wasn't the same rig
that your friend took out that carried off the doctor. It might have
been a serious affair."

Cou