Stanlock heard regarding
Kittie's toothache, but she accepted the statement for its face value
and waited hopefully for an early return of her daughter and her
daughter's guests. Half an hour went by and the girls did not appear.
Darkness was now visibly gathering. Mrs. Stanlock was becoming uneasy
and called up her husband's office, but Mr. Stanlock had already
started for home. By the time he arrived, the good woman was almost
prostrated, so rapidly were fear and apprehension taking possession of
her.
The big coal operator scented danger at once. Immediately after
gathering the principal details of the day's occurrences, he got the
police station on the wire and communicated them to the officer in
charge.
Drastic measures were resorted to at once. The day shift of uniformed
and ununiformed guardians of the law was summoned back to duty, and a
posse of available citizens were sworn in.
About 7 o'clock a posse of citizen policemen, led by three or four
uniformed members of the regular force, began a canvass of the
neighborhood to discover information that might suggest a clew as to
the whereabouts of the missing girls. Half an hour later a woman
informed one of the canvassers that she had seen eight or ten girls
enter the yard of the old Buckholz place between 3 and 4 o'clock, but
had not noticed whether they went into the house or not.
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