Emily.—"No, but I'll be over to-night. I want to see Pauline."
The girl abruptly entered the house and greeted her mother a trifle impatiently.
"I'm getting awful tired of Al," she said.
That evening the girl went to the home of her sister, Mrs. Henry Wallis, where Barker and his aunt, Mrs. Fannie Willis, mother-in-law of Mrs. Wallis, also live. At 8 o'clock the girl and Barker left together.
"They said they might go to a show, and that's the last I saw of them," Mrs. Wallis said.
Late at night the two households became alarmed when neither of the young people returned. The families suggested to each other that Barker and the girl had eloped, but still there were doubts and misgivings.
Martin Whittier, the town marshal, was called and the alarm was sent to the Chicago police. Sunday morning came and there was no word of either of the missing.
A group of high school boys volunteered to look for the couple, and soon they were joined by the whole school. No trace of the trail was found.
Yesterday morning the disappearance had grown into a village sensation. The schools were closed for the day and all the pupils turned out to beat over the fields and woods.
Carl Selig, a grocery delivery man, was driving in Orchard Street on the south side of the village, about 5 o'clock, when something behind a bunch of bushes and tanglewood at Lyman Street caught his eye. He climbed off the wagon and pushed through the brush to investigate. In a small open place half concealed by the bushes Selig came upon a girl's body. The face was covered with her coat and her hands were folded across her breast. He gingerly pulled off the coat and recognized the girl as Emily Benton. Selig gave the alarm and the body was removed to Davis's undertaking rooms in the village.