The Lost Patrol

Something most mysterious has occurred, dear readers, if, in fact, there are any readers left. For a long and comforting time, there have appeared on the right side of the screen the visages or symbols of seven discerning persons described as "followers." And now they have vanished! Disappeared! Gone without a trace! 

It is very like one of those books or films we remember--"The Lost Patrol"--in which a band of brave Foreign Legionnaires are swallowed up in the desert mists. (If they have mists in the desert, but you get the idea.)

We wonder--could hackers for some hostile foreign power have seized our followers? Are they now being held hostage somewhere in cyberspace? We have turned over this puzzle to our Computer Specialist, although his technological qualifications end with the door knob.

Missing Persons Bureau, please act! Issue an APB! Find and return our missing followers! Or have them call home. (But not collect.)