Publisher's Synopsis
Gwendolen Ocumpaugh the only child of wealthy parents and heiress to a fortune, making her known to the public as as the "Millionaire Baby." She disappears from a bungalow on the family estate while Mrs. Ocumpaugh is giving a large reception. The nursery governess, Miss Graham, has no idea what could have happened to the baby. A search begins, and one small shoe belonging to Gwendolen is found in the bushes and another in the river. Mr. Trevitt, the private detective working the case, discovers that the two shoes are for the same foot and immediately scents a conspiracy and is convinced that the child has been abducted. In the next house to the Ocumpaughs lives an attractive widow, named Mrs. Carew, who on the day of the disappearance has been to the city and brought back with her an orphan nephew with whom she is to sail immediately for Europe. Mr. Trevitt explores the bungalow with Mrs. Carew as she will not permit him to go there without her, and he discovers a trap door under a rug which leads to a room underground and finds proof of Gwendolen's having been kept there in secret. He discovers a woman's footprints which he suspects are Mrs. Carew's but on interviewing Mrs. Ocumpaugh she breaks down and confesses that they are hers. She tells him that Gwendolen is not her own child but has been deceiving her husband as to her real identity. Mrs. Ocumpaugh herself hid her in the bungalow and later carried her to Mrs. Carew's where she was dressed as a boy, with her hair cut and darkened. The child Mrs. Carew had brought back from the city was surreptitiously carried away in a covered wagon. Mrs. Ocumpaugh carried out the deeds with her husband in mind, whom she loves devotedly. She is almost crazed at the thought of his learning her deceptions. Who is the true mother of the "Millionaire Baby"? And why did Mrs. Ocumpaugh seek to fake her disappearance?
