noon
The fence was too high for the boy to climb over , and the Columbian guards detailed to that section swore they always kept the whole village in view , and it was impossible for the boy to have got over the fence without being seen by them . Like the great wave of the sea that breaks into a million pieces as it strikes the shore , so this great question resolved itself into a thousand theories , and at last lived in the memory of the people only as the great mystery of Midway Plaisance . _ CHAPTER XII _ Fanny was at the inn when noon came but the boys were nowhere to be seen . She saw great crowds of people massed a little way up the street but crowds were a common sight . She heard broken narrations of some exciting event that had transpired but there was nothing to cause her to think that her brother might be the central figure of all the excitement . Johnny rarely missed his appointments with her and she felt that something unusual had occurred or he would have met her at the designated place .