Page:Raymond Spears--Diamond Tolls.djvu/13

 copper-mine route," from Chicago to Kansas and Butte.

Goles had observed the shadow; he had noted it; he had called the firm's attention to it, which was equivalent to a warning to them to put the National Agency on the trail to protect him! It was an excellent corroboration of the visible trust reposed in Goles. They were glad to know that he was not only competent, honest, and thorough; he was also watchful. One of the most successful shadows in the detective branch of the jewellery business had been detected almost instantly.

Accordingly, Ofsten & Groner notified the National manager of their satisfaction and the detective, Volcon, was called off at Cincinnati at noon. Volcon trailed his man till noon, sharp, and saw him enter a restaurant at that moment. Then the case closed, Volcon reported to the local branch of the National Agency, and was assigned to a hold up over on the Wabash River, in which a pearl buyer had lost a thousand dollars in cash, and pearls of the value of $6,000.

From that moment, noon sharp, Obert Goles vanished. He failed to make his customary report that evening, and when Ofsten & Groner telegraphed to the hotel in Warsaw, where he was to have put up the following night, they learned from the proprietor that Goles had not appeared there. Agency Manager