And so the days ran into weeks and the weeks into months, with the mystery no nearer solution than in the beginning—no word, no sign from the old man who had vanished, no clue that led to anything save disappointment. There was something grim, uncanny about the silence of old man Baxter—it was indeed the silence of the dead. “He might as well be dead,” was a remark that became common in Rumley whenever his case was discussed. Strangely enough, no one now believed him to be dead. Everybody agreed with the detective that the cantankerous old man had “skipped out” with the sole idea of frustrating his son’s plan to return to Chicago. “What gets me,” said Joseph Sikes, “is the underhanded way he went about it. Leaving Oliver and all the rest of us to worry ourselves sick and him just calmly settling down somewheres in peace and comfort and maybe snickerin’ to himself over the way he put it over on us. It wasn’t like him, either. I never knew a more upright man, or anybody as square and above-board as Ollie Baxter.” Not once but a dozen times a day Mr. Sikes held forth in some such manner as this, ignoring Mr. Link’s contention that poor old Ollie may not have been responsible for his act, “owing,” said he, “to a sudden mental aberration.” Young Dr. Lansing spoke of it as “aphasia,” which was doubted with scornful determination until the word was reduced to “loss of memory” by several family doctors who stood well in the community. Oliver October took charge of the store and, as self-appointed manager, conducted the business to the best of his ability. He deferred to the older clerks and the book-keeper in matters of policy, an attitude which not only surprised but pleased them. Charlie Keep, the senior clerk—a man who had been in the store for twenty years—was so inspired and relieved by this self-effacement that he speedily proclaimed Oliver October to be a better business man than his father. There was nothing in the young man’s manner to indicate that he rebelled against the turn in his affairs. On the contrary, he took hold with an enthusiasm that left nothing to be desired by those who at first shook their heads dubiously over the situation.