Every newspaper reporter in Los Angeles was engaged in the search for Gibson that followed the publication of the exposure of his plot with Cummings. The other papers, anxious to retaliate by obtaining the first statement from Gibson for the blow given them when they were "scooped" combined their forces in a frantic effort to find him before John and Brennan could do so. The missing man's office and apartment were closed. His secretary, located after a search of several hours, could give no information concerning his disappearance. The railroad, steamship and automobile bus stations had sold no ticket to anyone answering his description. He seemed to have vanished completely. A theory was advanced that he had fled with "Gink" Cummings and this was gradually accepted generally as the hours passed and no trace of him could be found. Brennan waited until they were alone before he suggested to John that Consuello might be able to furnish a clew to Gibson's whereabouts. Thoughts of her had been flashing in and out of John's mind during the excitement of the morning. He realized that if anyone knew where Gibson was it would be Consuello, and again he had the disheartening apprehension that, faithful to her love, she might be in flight with the man she was to have married. "I don't like to speak of it--she's probably very much upset by what has happened today--but there's only one person who may know where Gibson is," said Brennan, "and that's Miss Carrillo." "I'd rather do almost anything than face her, today," said John. "You mean with your face bandaged up the way it is?" Brennan asked, a twinkle in his eyes. "I don't know what she will think of me," John said, ignoring the jest. "She has believed in Gibson and she may think that what I have helped to do is a violation of the friendship between us and that I am an ungrateful and deceitful wretch." "Don't you want to see her and explain things to her?" "No, not until she sends for me." "Suppose she never sends for you--what then?" "Then I'll know that she never wants to see me and--and--that will be the end of it, I suppose." They were silent for a moment and then, while John was pondering over the thoughts that were in his mind when he had said, "The end of it, I suppose," Brennan without another word, quoted a quatrain from the verse that he had recited while they were waiting to overhear the conversation between Gibson and Cummings: "So long as Pleasure calls us up, And duty drives us down, If you love me as I love you, What pair so happy as we two?" John glanced up quickly and saw that Brennan was pretending he just happened to think of the verse and had quoted it with no particular intention or reference to the thoughts of either of them. "'And duty drives us down,'" he repeated, smiling.