It is always the unexpected that happens.
Even the closest friends of the missing man, earnest as they apparently were in the declaration of their belief that he had been the victim of foul play, still hoped against hope that their fears would not be realized. As a drowning man clings to a straw, so they clung to the hope that they would again see him alive and in the flesh.
But it was not to be.
Dr. Cronin did not leave Chicago on the night of his disappearance.
He was not seen on a street car apparently en route to the depot.
He was not recognized on Canadian soil; nor did he unbosom himself to reporter Long.
He was not en route to London to betray the cause to which he had devoted so large a portion of his active life; or to re-enforce the spy Le Caron in his work of infamy.
Dr. Cronin was murdered.
THE CATCH-BASIN—SOUTH VIEW.