g up and down the road, as they talked, as
though she, too, were on the watch for some one. She promised James to
keep a lookout for the missing girl. "Poor little thing," she murmured.
There was something in her face as she said that, a slight phase of
amusement, which caused James to stare keenly at her, but it had passed,
and her whole face denoted the utmost candor and concern.

When James reached home he had a forlorn hope that he should find
Clemency there; that from a spirit of mischief she had taken some cross
track over the fields to elude him. But when Aaron met him in the drive,
and he saw the man's frightened stare, he knew that she had not come.
It was unnecessary to ask, but ask he did. "She has not come?"

"No, Doctor Elliot," replied Aaron. He did not even chew. He tied the
horses, and followed James into the office, with his jaws stiff. Gordon
stood up when James entered, and looked past him for Clemency. "She was
not there?" he almost shouted.

"She left the Liptons at two o'clock, and I have stopped at every house
on my way, and no one has seen her."

"Oh, my God!" said Gordon, with a dazed look at James.

"What do you think?" asked James.

"I don't know what to think. I am utterly at a loss now. I supposed she
was entirely safe. There are almost no tramps at this season, and in
broad daylight. At two, you said? It is almost six. I don't know what to
do. What will come next? I must tell Clara something before I do
anything else."

Gordon rushed out of the office, and they heard his heavy tread on the
stairs. Aaron stared at James, and still he did not chew.

"It's almost dark," he said with a low drawl.

"Yes."

"We've got to take lanterns, and hunt along the road and fields."

"Yes, we have."

The dog, which had been asleep, got up, and came over to James, and laid
his white head on his knee. "We can take him," Aaron said. "Sometimes
dogs have more sense than us."

"That is so," said James. He felt himself in an agony of helplessness.
He simply did not know what to do. He had sunk into a chair and his head
fairly rung. It seemed to him incredible that the girl had disappeared a
second time. A queer sense of unreality made him feel faint.

Gordon reentered the room. "I have told Clara that you have come back,
and that Clemency is to stay all night with Annie Lipton," he said. Then
he, too, stood staring helplessly. Emma had come into the room, and now
she spoke angrily to the three da