Mr. Rothsay was missing until this morning. When the inaugural committee
came two hours ago, the servants told them all that I have just told
you."

"Who was the last visitor? He might throw some light upon this dark,
evil subject. Who was he?" abruptly demanded Aaron Rockharrt.

"I do not know. No one seems to know. Jasper says he never saw him
before, nor ever heard his name."

"Couldn't he see it on his card?"

"Jasper cannot read, you must remember."

"Where is that card? Let me see it!"

"It cannot be found."

"Conspiracy! Treason! Murder!" interrupted Aaron Rockharrt. "The
governor-elect has been decoyed away from the house by that last caller,
and has been murdered! And the people in the house may not be as
innocent or ignorant as they pretend to be. I will go out and take
counsel with the committee," he said, and he turned and strode out of
the drawing room.

When he reached the hall, however, he found that the officials had gone
to pursue their search for the missing man elsewhere. The men of his own
party were nowhere to be seen. The porter, Jasper, was the only occupant
of the hall, and Aaron Rockharrt opened the hall door and walked out.
The military and civil escort were still on parade before the house,
waiting for the governor-elect.

Mr. Rockharrt's carriage was standing before the door. He entered it and
ordered the coachman to drive to police headquarters.

The hour for the inauguration of the new governor was approaching. The
procession to the State house should have been in motion by this time.
The people on the sidewalks, at the doors and windows, on the balconies,
and on the roofs, all along the line of march, were beginning to be
weary of waiting.

The officials who had the ceremonies of the occasion in hand waited
until three o'clock in the afternoon, and then, as the governor-elect
was nowhere to be found, as the necessity was imminent, the inaugural
procession was ordered to begin its march.

"Where is he? Where is Rothsay?" demanded the spectators one of the
other.

No one knew. No one had seen him. No one could, therefore, answer.

When the procession reached the State house, the lieutenant-governor,
Kennelm Kennedy, was sworn in, and the military companies and the civic
societies and the spectators all dispersed.

But where was the governor? That was the question of the hour. Why had
he not been inaugurated? was asked by everybody of everybody else. The
secret of his tot