But the next morning the newspapers brought a new sensation to a startled city. Two important pieces of news furnished excitement enough to arouse even the staid and respectable old _Atlas_. People gathered in knots on street corners to discuss them. The air was breezy with excitement. The street corners were blocked with gathering knots of indignant citizens, eager crowds gathered in front of newspaper bulletin boards, questioning among themselves whether there was any respect for law and order left in Roma; whether life was safe on the open street; whether the public was to be fooled any longer by charlatans and tricksters; whether the police could or would do anything in the premises. In short, every citizen of Roma, rich or poor, old or young, was aroused at last by these two bits of news. The startling news was-- Orlando Vickery had "jumped his bail" and disappeared; and The Mayor and her private secretary had not been seen nor heard from since they left the drug-store the previous evening at a quarter before eight. CHAPTER XVIII A Futile Search It would seem that in a city of fifty thousand inhabitants, it would be impossible for the Mayor and his (or her) private secretary to drop so suddenly and completely from sight as to leave no trace or clue behind them; yet such was the fact. Knowing Fitzgerald to be of a peculiar temperament, Gertrude had arranged to meet him as quietly as possible. Had her cousin, Jessie Craig, been at home, she would have told her where she was going, but that lady had gone to Philadelphia for a few days' visit, and there was no one in the Van Deusen home but the servants, to whom Miss Van Deusen had merely remarked that she was going out and would be back, probably, about ten. Mary Snow lived in an apartment hotel and occupied her two-room suite in spinster independence, carrying her own latch-key and accounting to no one for her goings and comings. So accustomed had the clerks and elevator-boys become to seeing her come in, during her newspaper days, at all hours of the night, that they paid little heed to her movements. So there was no one to feel any alarm when midnight came and they did not return from their excursion to the suffering Fitzgerald. Towards morning, however, when Miss Van Deusen failed to appear, the old butler who had known her so many years, became alarmed, and at daylight telephoned to Bailey Armstrong. The news came to him with a shock, but he went at once to Miss Snow's hotel, thinking the Mayor might have stayed there for some reason. When he found them both missing, he became alarmed, sent for the chief of police and the district attorney, and telegraphed Jessie Craig to return.