"Hooray for Rothsay!" which was taken up by the chorus and echoed and
re-echoed from one end to the other of the city, and from earth to sky.

Poor Rothsay himself passed out upon the sidewalk, unrecognized in the
obscurity.

An empty hack was standing at the corner of the square, a few hundred
feet from the house.

To this he went, and spoke to the man on the box:

"Is this hack engaged?"

"Yes, sah, it is--took by four gents as can't get no lodgings at none of
the hotels, nor yet boarding houses--no, sah. Dere dey is ober yonder in
dat dere s'loon cross de street--yes, sah. But it don't keep open, dat
s'loon don't, longer'n twelve o'clock--no, sah. It's mos' dat now, so
dey'll soon call for dis hack--yes, sah!"

Rothsay left the talkative hackman and passed on.

A hand touched him on the arm.

He turned and saw old Scythia, clothed in a long, black cloak of some
thin stuff, with its hood drawn over her head.

Rothsay stared.

"Come, Rule! You have tested woman's love to-day, and found it fail you;
even as I tested man's faith in the long ago, and found it wrong me!
Come, Rule! You and I have had enough of falsehood and treachery! Let us
shake the dust of civilization off our shoes! Come, Rule!"

CHAPTER VI.

THE WIDOWED BRIDE.

The amazement and confusion that followed the discovery of the
mysterious disappearance of Governor-elect Regulas Rothsay, on the
morning of the day of his intended inauguration, has been already
described in an earlier chapter of this story.

The most searching inquiries were made in all directions without any
satisfactory result.

Then advertisements were put in all the principal newspapers in all the
chief towns and cities throughout the country, offering large rewards
for any information that should lead to the discovery of the missing man
or of his fate.

These in time drew forth letters from all points of the compass from
people anxious to take a chance in this lottery of a reward, and who
fabricated reports of the lost governor having been seen in this, that,
or the other place, or of his body having been found here, there or
elsewhere.

Prompt investigation proved the falsehood of these fraudulent letters in
every instance.

No one really knew the fate of the missing man. No one but Cora Rothsay
had even the clew to the cause of his disappearance; and she--from her
sensitive pride, no less than from her sacred promise not to reveal the
subject of her