ch a more serious meaning to them."

"What! what! what!" demanded the Iron King.

"I think that some fatal news, from some quarter or other, had reached
him; or that some heavy sorrow had fallen upon him; or, worse than all,
sudden insanity had overtaken him! That, under the lash of one or
another, or all of these, he fled the house and the city, and--made away
with himself."

"Now, Heaven forbid!" exclaimed old Aaron Rockharrt, dropping into his
chair.

"One favor I have to ask you, Mr. Rockharrt, and that is, that the most
searching investigation be made of my movements on that fatal evening of
the governor's disappearance."

"It shall be done," said the Iron King.

"I shall remain at the David Crockett until all the friends of the late
governor are satisfied so far as I am concerned. And now, having said
all I have to say, I will bid you good morning," concluded the visitor
as he arose, took up his hat, bowed, and left the room.

Old Aaron Rockharrt returned to the breakfast table, where his
subservient family waited.

The coffee, that had been sent to the kitchen to be kept hot, was
brought up again, with hot rolls and hot broiled partridges.

The old man resumed his breakfast in silence. He did not think proper to
speak of his visitor, nor did any member of the family party venture to
question him.

And this was well, so far as Cora was concerned.

Any allusion to the agonizing subject of her husband's mysterious
disappearance was more than she could well bear; and to have hinted in
her presence that some hidden sorrow had driven him to self-destruction
might almost have wrecked her reason.

Cora now never mentioned his name; yet, as after events proved, he was
never for a moment absent from her mind.

The old grandmother, who could not speak to Cora on the subject, and who
dared not speak to her lord and master on any subject that he did not
first broach, and yet who felt that she must talk to some one of that
which oppressed her bosom so heavily, at length confided to her youngest
son.

"I do think Cora's heart is breaking in this suspense, Clarence! If Rule
had died there would have been an end of it, and she would have known
the worst and submitted to the inevitable! But this awful suspense,
anxiety, uncertainty as to his fate, is just killing her! I wish we
could do something to save her, Clarence!"

"I wish so, too, mother! I see how she is failing and sinking, and I own
that this surprise