ud came out to say 'Good-bye,' and an affecting scene
occurred. Mr. Hardy and the boys kept up as well as they could, in order
to inspire the mother and sister with hope during their absence, and
with many promises to bring their missing one back, they galloped off.

They were scarcely out of the gate, when they saw their two friends from
Canterbury coming along at full gallop. Both were armed to the teeth,
and evidently prepared for an expedition. They wrung the hands of Mr.
Hardy and his sons.

'We ordered our horses the moment we got your note, and ate our
breakfast as they were being got ready. We made a lot of copies of your
note, and sent off half a dozen men in various directions with them.
Then we came on at once. Of course most of the others cannot arrive for
some time yet, but we were too anxious to hear all about it to delay,
and we thought that we might catch you before you started, to aid you in
your first search. Have you any more certain news than you sent us?'

'None,' Mr. Hardy said, and then repeated the relation of the survivor.

There was a pause when he had finished, and then Mr. Herries said:

'Well, Mr. Hardy, I need not tell you, if our dear little Ethel is
alive, we will follow you till we find her, if we are a year about it.'

'Thanks, thanks,' Mr. Hardy said earnestly. 'I feel a conviction that we
shall yet recover her.'

During this conversation they had been galloping rapidly towards the
scene of the catastrophe, and, absorbed in their thoughts, not another
word was spoken until they gained the first rise, from which they had
been accustomed to see the pleasant house of the Mercers. An exclamation
of rage and sorrow burst from them all, as only a portion of the chimney
and a charred post or two showed where it had stood. The huts of the
peons had also disappeared; the young trees and shrubs round the house
were scorched up and burnt by the heat to which they had been exposed,
or had been broken off from the spirit of wanton mischief.

With clenched teeth, and faces pale with rage and anxiety, the party
rode on past the site of the huts, scattered round which were the bodies
of several of the murdered peons. They halted not until they drew rein,
and leapt off in front of the house itself.

It had been built entirely of wood, and only the stumps of the corner
posts remained erect. The sun had so thoroughly dried the boards of
which it was constructed, that it had burnt like so much tin