CHAPTER II.

DR. CRONIN FAILS TO RETURN HOME--ANXIETY OF HIS FRIENDS--THE EARLY MORNING RIDE TO THE ICE HOUSE--O'SULLIVAN'S SURPRISE AND IGNORANCE--THE MYSTERIOUS WAGON AND ITS OCCUPANTS--A BLOODY TRUNK IS FOUND--THE SEARCH COMMENCED--"IT IS HIS HAIR."

Dr. Cronin did not join his friends at the meeting of the Celto-American Society that memorable Saturday night. Nor, although the Conklins waited for him until long past midnight, were the familiar footsteps heard upon the stairs. The Sabbath dawned, and the first streaks of grey penetrated through the curtains into his apartments, but he was still absent. Naturally the Conklins became alarmed. During all the years that the physician had lived with them he had been a model of punctuality in his habits. It was the first occasion that he had remained so long from home without reason. If his business affairs happened to keep him away even an hour longer than usual it was his invariable practice to in some way contrive to advise his friends, so that they might notify any patients that came in his absence. Moreover, he was not a drinking man and such a thing as staying out all night with boon companions was foreign to his practice. Yet, eight hours had sped by, the morning had broken, and he had not returned. No wonder, then, that the family was alarmed, or that Mr. Conklin, without waiting for breakfast, determined to procure a buggy and drive to P. O'Sullivan's residence, which adjoined his ice house, at the corner of Seminary Avenue and Lake View. A startling surprise awaited him at the end of his six mile ride. O'Sullivan, when aroused from bed, was, to all appearances, considerably surprised when asked if the doctor was in the house.

"This is all news to me," he said, with an apparent air of frankness. "I have not been out of town and I know nothing of the man in a buggy."

"Was there not an accident in your ice house?" he was asked. "No," was the reply. "I have only four men in my employ and none of them have been injured."

"Then you did not call on Dr. Cronin, or send for him?"

"No, the man who did call used my name without authority. You say he used one of my cards, leaving it at the office. Well, I can understand how that happened. My cards are scattered all over Lake View and the city, and anybody could have used one in the same way."

"Do you know Dr. Cronin?" the ice man was asked.

"Yes," was his reply, "I have met him several times, and we were quite friendly."

"How did you come to engage him as physician to your family and workmen, when you live six miles from his office?"

This pointed query seemed to stagger the ice man for a moment, but at last he replied:

"He was recommended to me by Justice Mahoney." The latter, who had been elected a Lake View Magistrate but a few weeks before, had been regarded as one of Dr. Cronin's friends.

"Then you do not know how it happened that he was summoned to your ice house?" was the final query.

"I do not," emphatically replied O'Sullivan, "I cannot understand what were the motives of the man who went for him."

This was all that the ice man had to say. In the light of subsequent events, however, it was of importance. Mr. Conklin's worst fears were intensified. Driving rapidly home, he learned from his wife that the physician had not taken his revolver, as was his practice when going on a long trip; that he had only a small amount of money with him, and that he wore no jewelry of value except a watch. Without delay, Conklin proceeded to notify Frank J. Scanlan, his brother John, and two or three other Irish-Americans of prominence.

"This is the work of political enemies," they said without hesitation, "it has been skillfully planned and executed. It will take time and money to find him, if it is not intended to murder him."

Significant words. At that very hour the blood of the murdered man was calling aloud for vengeance.

A hue and cry was at once raised. The Chicago police were notified, and the most experienced detectives of the department started out on the case. Pinkerton's Detective Agency was retained, and Detective Frank Murray went out to Lake View as fast as a swift horse could take him. Captain Schaack of the Chicago Avenue Station, and officers of the Lake View police, were waited on and urged to turn loose all the officers they could spare to solve the mystery. Last, but not least, the newspaper offices were advised of the disappearance, and a score or more of sleuth reporters were soon in the suburb. By sundown of Sunday nearly sixty people were engaged in the search.

A STARTLING DISCOVERY.

Meanwhile there had been startling developments in another direction. Somewhere in the neighborhood of two o'clock on the morning of the same day (Sunday) and about six hours after the physician had been decoyed from his residence, Officers Smith and Hayden, of the Lake View police force, were on duty at the corner of Clark and Diversey Streets, when they saw a carpenter's wagon, drawn by a bay horse, rumbling at a furious rate toward the north. The Lake View police were under instructions to hail passing vehicles and pedestrians after midnight, and accordingly, Officer Smith stepped out on the pavement to look at the two men who sat upon the driver's seat.

The wagon was driven at such speed, however, that the officer did not have time to look into the faces of the two mysterious men or command them to stop. There was a large trunk in the wagon. Both officers saw this receptacle. When the wagon had disappeared Officer Smith became suspicious of the two drivers, and told Officer Hayden so. The two policemen patrolled their beats until about 3.30 o'clock when they again met at Clark and Diversey Streets. They had been there but a few moments when they again heard a vehicle rumbling over the pavement. It proved to be the same old carpenter's wagon with its mysterious occupants and its old bay horse. But the trunk was no longer in the wagon. This time Hayden walked out upon the pavement to look at the men in the driver's seat. One of them wore a black derby hat. His companion wore a soft hat. Both were young and muscular. There was no name on the wagon. Officer Hayden saw all this, but he could not get a good view of the men on the seat. He did not hail them because he thought the movement of a trunk at that time of year was not extraordinary. The wagon rolled back toward Chicago and Officer Hayden dismissed the incident from his mind; but Officer Smith was greatly disturbed, and told his companion so several times during the early morning hours.

FINDING THE BLOODY TRUNK.

The officers returned to the station at the usual hour, but neither made any report of the mysterious wagon or its still more mysterious occupants. At half past seven o'clock, Alderman Chapman, of Lake View, was driving along Evanston Avenue, between Graceland and the Roman Catholic Cemetery. He had reached a point five hundred yards from Sultzer Street, when he saw three men standing around a trunk which stood back of a bush, with one end thrust into the ditch which runs near the thoroughfare. Alderman Chapman alighted and went to the spot. The cover of the trunk had been forced open. The interior was bespattered with blood and partially filled with absorbent cotton which was saturated with gore. Chapman drove hurriedly to the Lake View Police Station and gave the alarm. Captain Villiers and a detachment of officers leaped into the patrol wagon and made a furious run to the lonely spot. When they got there they found a large crowd of gaping men and boys who had trampled the grass in every direction. The trunk was taken to the station house. The first thing Captain Villiers did after he cleared his private room of the curiosity seekers who had swarmed into the station house, was to make a careful examination of the trunk. He found enough evidence to satisfy him that a grown person had been murdered, thrust into it, and then carted to the spot between the two cemeteries. The trunk was new and large. A man six feet tall could be cramped into it. A trunk dealer who was summoned to the station house by Captain Villiers, said at once that it had been made either in Racine or Milwaukee. It was of cheap pattern and had evidently been purchased for the purpose for which it was used. The trunk had been locked after the body had been placed in it and the cotton had been packed about the wounds in order to stanch the flow of blood and thus insure greater safety in its transmission from place to place. Before the body was removed the lock of the trunk had been broken by two sharp blows with a blunt instrument. The marks of these blows were on both sides of the lock. In their haste to remove the body the murderers had thrown the cover back with such force that one of the sheet-iron hinges was broken. Captain Villiers picked the cotton out and placed it upon his table. He had formerly been a doctor and his examination of the cotton led him to the belief that the murder must have been committed some time after midnight. Some of the absorbent material was still soft with blood and there was a pool of fresh blood in one corner of the trunk. Careful examination of the cotton revealed other things to the officer. He found a lock of dark-brown hair, which was almost as fine as a woman's but not so glossy.

This was the only possible tangible clue to the identity of the victim. The lock of hair was placed under a microscope. It was found to be filled with blood and particles of cotton.

More closely examined; it looked as though it had been chopped off with a blunt instrument. It had not been pulled out of the scalp but the hairs were all of uneven length and looked as though they might have come off the cranium near the forehead. The inside of the cover of the trunk was bespattered with blood. Some of the life fluid had trickled down the exterior; presumably when the body was dragged out upon the ground. There were no marks on the trunk and aside from the lock of hair there was absolutely nothing left for the officers to hold for identification.

SEARCHING FOR CLUES.

Captain Villiers had not yet heard of the disappearance of Dr. Cronin. He was quickly satisfied, however, that a diabolical murder had been committed and at once issued orders to his subordinates to institute a thorough search for the body, which he believed to be somewhere in the neighborhood of the spot where the trunk was found. A patrol wagon filled with officers was out the entire afternoon. The men searched all the brush, prairie and vacant houses for a mile around, but could find no trace of the corpse. So many persons had trampled the grass at the spot where the trunk was found that the officers could not discover tracks of any vehicle. Evanston Avenue is so well paved that search along this much travelled highway would have been useless. The officers scoured the grass, examined the fences and went even so far as to invade the cemeteries. Not a drop of blood nor a particle of cotton could be found anywhere. Three boards of a fence were down at Argyle Street, but there was no evidence that they had been removed for the purpose of assisting men in the removal of a body. Efforts were made to find the men who first discovered the trunk but without result. One man that drove along the Evanston road an hour ahead of Alderman Chapman was positive that it was not there at that time, while on the other hand the alderman insisted that there were men at the spot for some time before he happened along in his buggy.

It was six o'clock on Sunday evening when Officers Smith and Hayden entered the station to report for their night's work. The instant Smith entered the Captain's private room he declared that the bloody trunk lying before him was the one he had seen in the carpenter's wagon when he stood with his brother-officer at Clark and Diversey Streets in the early morning.

Officer Hayden, when called in, was equally positive. At this moment the news of Dr. Cronin's disappearance was received, and Captain Villiers became intensely excited. The report that Dr. Cronin was missing under the most alarming circumstances and the gory evidences of a murder lying before him seemed to inspire the Captain with the belief that perhaps the mystery surrounding the well-known doctor's disappearance had been solved. He at once issued orders for a search for the mysterious wagon and its occupants. He hurriedly drove over to O'Sullivan's and put the ice man through a sharp examination. The latter, however, stuck to the story he had told earlier in the day. He knew nothing but what he had been told, he said; and his manner was so earnest, and his distress of mind--to outward appearances--so intense, that the official took him at his word.

"JUST LIKE HIS HAIR."

From the icehouse Captain Villiers drove to the home of the missing physician. For hours the apartments had been thronged with visitors, some waiting hour after hour, others coming and going, to hear the latest intelligence of the search. Without apprising them of his conjectures regarding the trunk the captain enquired as to the length of Dr. Cronin's hair.

"He wore his hair much longer than men usually do," said Mrs. Conklin, "and lately it had been quite long."

"Had he plenty of hair on the top of his head" the captain went on.

"Yes" replied some one in the room "and it was quite long."

The Chief then took from his pocket the scrap of paper containing the lock of hair he had found in the trunk, and those present crowded around and examined it closely. Some were inclined to believe that it resembled that of the missing man, but were fearful of expressing a positive opinion. At this juncture F. T. Scanlan, Jr., came into the room. He took the lock of hair and fingered it for a moment, his face blanched, and as he laid it down upon the table he ejaculated:

"That is just like his hair, yes, just like it."

There was a scream and a fall. One of the ladies present had fainted away.

By this time Captain Villiers was fully convinced that the lock of hair was destined to play an important part in the solution of the mystery. At the same time he was desirous that the identification should be more complete, or that the resemblance between the lock and the hair of the missing man should be established by the testimony of those best qualified to speak on the subject. Accordingly, bright and early on the following morning he visited the tonsorial establishment one door north of the Windsor theatre, where for years the physician had been in the habit of getting shaved three or four times weekly. Here, however, his theory encountered a set back. The proprietor, H. F. Wisch, was positive that the hair had come from some other head than that of Dr. Cronin. In this opinion he was supported by two of his employes. They had cut his hair time and again, and they insisted that there could be no possibility of their being mistaken when they said that the hair could not have come from Dr. Cronin's head. The lock that they were asked to identify was fully four inches long, and fine, while, so they contended, the physician's hair was exceptionally coarse. Moreover--and this appeared to be conclusive--his hair had been cut three days prior to his disappearance and it would have been impossible that a lock four inches in length could have been left on his head. So far as could be remembered his head was trimmed to an average length of two inches. As to color, there was something of a resemblance, although there was enough apparent difference in shade to be noticeable when compared with a few hairs taken from a hair brush that was kept for the doctor's exclusive use. Mr. and Mrs. Conklin, however, took issue with Barber Wisch on almost every point. The hair of their friend and tenant they asserted, was long, soft and remarkably silky, while, moreover, it was precisely of the same shade as the lock held by Captain Villiers. In the face of these conflicting statements the latter very wisely concluded that it would be useless to push this particular branch of the investigation at that time, and the clue was consigned to a drawer of the safe in the Lake View Station.

WAGON TRACKS LEAD TO THE WATER'S EDGE.

Meanwhile every available officer of the police force of the suburb, reinforced by Captain Schaack and a number of city detectives and officers, were searching high and low to discover the whereabouts of the physician and to solve the mystery surrounding the bloody trunk. Captain Schaack and his associates, after examining the locality of the find, tramped over the ground for a mile around.

While thus engaged a discovery was made that in the light of subsequent events was of considerable importance. It was the tracks of a wagon in the sandy road leading to the lake. Commencing at a point but a few yards from the place where the trunk was dumped, the trail went northwardly some three hundred yards, then turned to the side road and went east to the water's edge. Here in the wet sand the indications of a halt were quite plain. Thence, after following the beach about a hundred yards, the tracks turned into what was known as the Wilson road, and apparently proceeded southward to the city. It was impossible to determine from appearances whether the ruts were a day or a week old, for the high wind had blown the fine sand across the level beach in great clouds. At this juncture, however, a special officer of the village of Edgewater, and a watchman at the station, Wade by name, and who had learned that the officers were inclined to connect the wagon tracks with the trunk, told an interesting story.

"Early on Sunday morning," he said, "I was standing on Hollywood avenue, just north of Bryn Mawr avenue, when I saw a team standing near the edge of the lake. It was about 1:05, and I went to the team and asked a fellow who stood near what he was doing there at that hour of the night."

"We're looking for the Lake Shore drive," said he, "we want to get back to town."

"The Lake Shore drive, man, is two miles from here," I said, "can't you see there is no roadway here?"

"While I was talking a couple of fellows who had been walking along the beach came up."

"Boys," said the first man, "this officer says we're away off the road."

"At this they all got into the wagon and drove west on Bryn Mawr avenue until they reached the Evanston road. Then they started down Evanston avenue at a rapid gait and I lost sight of them. I noticed a long square box in the wagon, but it was very dark and I could not see plainly what it was. The fellow I talked to, however, I'll recognize and identify anywhere."

From a study of the surroundings, taken in connection with this story, the conclusion was arrived at by the police authorities that the trunk had been first taken to the lake, its contents thrown into the surf, and that it was then brought back into the road and dumped into the ditch. This, as was developed later, was the original intention of the murderers. The point on the beach where the tracks showed that the vehicle had made a halt was about as dreary and desolate a spot as could be found in the country. Sandy, covered with heavy timber, and removed nearly half a mile from a house or a shelter of any kind, it was just the place that a man or a party of men with a murderous job on their hands would have naturally selected.

To empty a trunk into the lake, or to dig a hole in the sand and drop a human body in it, would have been the work of but a few minutes, and all traces of the bloody crime might thus have been obliterated forever.

THE SEARCH REVEALS NOTHING.

For the next forty-eight hours the efforts of the authorities were re-doubled. All the livery stables on the north side of the city were visited for the purpose of ascertaining if a white horse and vehicle, as described by Mrs. Conklin and Frank Scanlan, had been rented out on the previous Saturday. Several white horses were owned by the liverymen in that section, but all, apparently, were satisfactorily accounted for. The one man, who, had he so chosen, could, by answering the question in the affirmative, have solved at least this portion of the mystery, preferred to hold his peace for the time being. Scores of men and boys waded through the pond in the German Catholic Cemetery, the river in the vicinity was dragged, nearly every sewer and sluice box in the city of Lake View was examined, and even the clay holes--which were as plentiful thereabouts as reefs in Lake Michigan--were hunted from end to end. As a last resort, and at the earnest solicitation of friends of Dr. Cronin, the Chicago River was dredged for a distance of six hundred feet at Fullerton avenue bridge, over which the wagon with the trunk was supposed to have crossed. This task, conducted by Captain Schaack and eight officers, occupied two days. Like the search in every other direction, however, it was utterly without result. The physician had disappeared as completely as though the earth had opened and swallowed him up, and the mystery of the trunk and its gory contents remained a mystery still.