[Illustration: DETECTIVE MICHAEL WHALEN.]
"You go and find that man," said Schaack, "or it may be bad for you."
Detective Michael Whalen was also assigned to assist his brother officer in the search, and day after day, they tramped the streets in sunshine and rain; and scoured the saloons for the mythical "Smith."
While this hunt was going on, Capt. Schaack had gone one evening to the livery stable, procured the white horse and buggy, and, having driven to the residence of the Conklins, asked the lady of the house whether she identified the animal and vehicle as the same that had taken the physician away. Later on there was a wide difference in the reports of this proceeding. The captain insisted that Mrs. Conklin declared that she utterly failed to recognize the rig, and that she said positively that it was not the same horse, as the one driven by the mysterious stranger--was better looking, and a faster traveler. On the other hand Mrs. Conklin was empathic in the declaration that she had said nothing of the kind, but had told the official that there was a close resemblance between the two rigs. Schaack also went to Dinan and obtained a description of the supposed Smith, and again this description, as taken from Schaack's notes, was as different from what the livery-man had told everybody else as light is from darkness, and tallied in no particular with that narrated by Mrs. Conklin and Frank Scanlan. That night, when Coughlin and Whalen presented themselves with the usual report that Smith had not been found, the captain acquainted them with the result of his enquiries, expressed himself as satisfied that there was no connection between the two rigs, and ordered them to drop the Cronin case and report for general duty.
"Its lucky for you," he said to Coughlin, "that it wasn't the same rig that your friend took out that carried off the doctor. It might have been a serious affair."
Coughlin smiled grimly, but said nothing. A couple of nights later, while the detective and Whalen were walking down Clark street, Coughlin met a man who appeared to know him. He did not offer to introduce him to his fellow officer, and the latter strolled on, while the two men engaged in conversation. When Coughlin rejoined Whalen he said that the man he had talked with was the mysterious "Smith," and that he was on the point of leaving for New Mexico. Whalen turned round to look at him, but he had disappeared. That night Coughlin told the same story to Capt. Schaack, and the latter dismissed the matter, with the remark, "all right," never even so much as thinking to ask his subordinate whether he had asked the man where he went with the rig that night, or why he had not brought him to the station. To Dinan the detective repeated the same story, mentioning Prescott as the point in New Mexico to which the man was going. He also said that he had collected three dollars from him to pay for the use of the rig, but that he had spent it, and would settle on the first of the month.