rom the
Chief. I left a note for him, telling him where we were going, and
just read this, sent down from the operator at Indian Creek. What do
you make of it?"

She read it aloud, frowning in perplexity:

Philip Kendrick, Toronto, July 27.
at Thorlakson Siding,
via Indian Creek.

Is Cristy safe? Wire immediately you receive this. McAllister
anxious. Send Cristy back but remain there yourself till McCorquodale
arrives. Important work for you there. McCorquodale will explain.
Jimmy Stiles missing since day you left. Did you take him with you?

WADE.

"I should have sent a wire before this, I guess," admitted Kendrick
slowly. "But I thought we'd be back before Wade returned to town. I
didn't think to send it to McAllister. He's your--editor, isn't he?
I'll get Thorlakson to send one of his men----"

She interrupted him with a gesture of impatience.

"The question is, Mr. Kendrick, what's happened to Jimmy Stiles?"

"Yes, and what's happened to make Wade send McCorquodale up here?
What's this important work he's talking about?"

"If Jimmy Stiles has disappeared, it hasn't been of his own free will.
I'm sure of that, Mr. Kendrick,--positive!" She looked at him with
anxious eyes.

"He was all right the day we had lunch together," mused Phil. "The
wire says he's been missing since the day I left the city; so he must
have gone that night. You know him a lot better than I do, of course;
but from what you told me the other night he got away with fifty
thousand dollars once before in pretty slick fashion."

"That suspicion does you no credit, Mr. Kendrick," said Cristy in quick
resentment. "Jimmy hasn't absconded. He's been abducted!"

"You have a ready imagination," smiled Phil.

"I know Nickleby," she retorted.

Kendrick shook his head.

"Abduction brings to mind closed cabs and chloroform. Do they pull off
stunts like that nowadays--in Toronto? It sounds too melodramatic,
Miss Lawson."

"What about that assault in the park by Nickleby's hirelings the other
night? You saw that yourself. I don't say Nickleby would dare to harm
Jimmy Stiles; he's no fool. But I do think that he's had a hand in
Jimmy's disappearance."

"Have you any special reason for thinking that?"

"Yes," she replied after a moment's hesitation. "We--the
_Recorder_--Mr. McAllister has been expecting Nickleby to attempt a
clean-up of some kind, preparatory to dropping out of sight completely.
His p