I shook hands with Gene and went to the office, where I found the receiver down, waiting for me. I hardly recognized Katherine Thurston's voice at first.
"Is that you, Mr. Hilton? Oh, thank goodness I have found you! Jean has gone away. I'm terribly worried--"
"What makes you think she is gone? Didn't Barney bring her home in a cab an hour ago? I told him to."
"He did. I was waiting at Mr. Ellison's for news when she came. She told me everything,--the poor child had been terribly imposed on. That man made her believe that he could clear Gene,--"
"So he could have done, if he had wanted to!"
"Well, that is what she believed, and so she consented to marry him. But of course she was dreadfully worked up over it all, and when she came home with Barney and told me about your coming and saving her at the last moment, she was so excited that she was hardly coherent. So I made her lie down and try to rest, and I left her in her room. Just now I went back to see her, and she was gone. Minnie says she went away, with a handbag, immediately after I left, and said that she was not coming back. When I remember the nervous and excited state she was in, I am dreadfully worried."
"How long ago did she leave the house, according to Minnie?"
"Nearly an hour ago. Do you think she could possibly have gone to that man?"
"Not at all," I said promptly. "He is in custody."
"But he might have some agents--"