A systematic search was instituted, detectives set to work, and all the majestic machinery of the law put in motion. It had happened strangely enough, that the proprietor of the drug-store which had been their rendezvous was out when the two women had met there, and neither of the two young clerks knew the Mayor or her secretary by sight. Consequently, there was not a soul who had seen or recognized either of them after they had set out for the appointment with Fitzgerald. Neither had anyone known of that appointment; nor would it have mattered in the least if they had, since, Fitzgerald himself, alive and well, had known nothing of the engagement made in his name, and was even now talking loudly against the outrage and the shame of what was plainly foul play. "Kidnaping," every other man said, and believed, and the detectives were on a still hunt again for the mysterious electric cab of election eve. In this particular line of search John Allingham was bending all his energies. Every garage in the city was visited and made to account for each one of its machines. No chauffeur was left unquestioned, and the records were thoroughly examined--all with the foolish consciousness that nothing could be easier than for some private owner or renter of an automobile to have skimmed quietly away with the mayor in his tonneau, quite out of reach of the law. As the day passed, rumors of flying automobiles came in from all directions, making a hopeless confusion of clues that led nowhere. At City Hall, the chairman of the board of aldermen took the helm, becoming acting-mayor for the time being. Although he directed the search for the mayor and her secretary with much skill and patience, the Honorable Otis H. Mann was enjoying an inflated sense of independence, such as does not come often to a small man on large occasions. As the day closed and no news came from the missing women, the excitement grew. Crowds gathered on the streets and squares, until someone, by a happy thought, called for a mass-meeting in Masonic Temple. If Gertrude could have heard the speeches made there, and noted the sympathy and pride of her townspeople, she would have felt her strength renewed as the eagle. For however they might have been divided in opinion before, every man, woman and child were solidly for her now. A great wave of indignation had swept the city, and left the public heart alive with love and sorrow for the brave young woman who had dared take up this burden. Although they talked hopefully and determinedly of perfecting their search and restoring her to her office, many a heart was cherishing a great fear that death, or worse than death, had already overtaken her.