he rail of the landing, wishing that
the sun would rise and dispel at least some portion of his sorrow.

He reached Pera, and spent the whole day in fruitless inquiries. In the
evening he returned, and the next morning he went back again; sleeping
little, hardly eating at all, speaking to no one he knew, and growing
hourly more thin and haggard, till the Cossacks at the gate hardly
recognized him. But day after day he searched, and all the countless
messengers, officials, guides, porters, and people of every class
searched, too, attracted by the large reward which the ambassador
offered for any information concerning Alexander Patoff. But not the
slightest clue could be obtained. Alexander Patoff had disappeared
hopelessly and completely, and had left no more trace than if he had
been thrown into the Bosphorus, with a couple of round shot at his neck.
The days lengthened into weeks, and the weeks became a month, and still
Paul hoped against all possibility of hope, and wearied the officials of
every class with his perpetual inquiries.

Count Ananoff had long since communicated the news of Alexander's
disappearance to the authorities in St. Petersburg, thinking it barely
possible that he might have gone home secretly, out of anger against his
brother. But the only answer was an instruction to leave nothing untried
in attempting to find the lost man, provided that no harm should be
done to the progress of certain diplomatic negotiations then proceeding.
As the count had foreseen, the Turkish authorities, while exhibiting
considerable alacrity in the prosecution of the search, vaguely hinted
that Paul Patoff himself was the only person able to give a satisfactory
explanation of the case; and in due time these hints found their way
into the gossip of the Bosphorus tea-parties. Paul was not unpopular,
but in spite of his studied ease in conversation there was a reserve in
his manner which many persons foolishly resented; and they were not slow
to find out that his brother's disappearance was very odd,--so strange,
they said, that it seemed impossible that Paul should know nothing of
it. The ambassador thought it was time to speak to him on the subject.
Moreover, in his present state of excitement Paul was utterly useless in
the embassy, and the work which had accumulated during the month of
Ramazan was now unusually heavy. Count Ananoff had arranged this matter,
without speaking of it to any one, a fortnight after Alexander'