CHAPTER XL.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 224, 15 October 1887, Page 6

CHAPTER XL.

GONE ! LOST ! Contusion dwelt in every face, And fear In every heart. Spectator. " I have brought you some hot spiced wine to warm you, my child," he said, as he took his seat, with the glass in his hand. There was no answer". It was as dark as Erebus in the inside of the coach, and he could nob see an inch before Moy "Put out your hand, Gertrude, that I may take it, Before- 1 put the glass into it." There was nO answer ' " She has fallen asleep ! Do you hear me, Gertrude ?" he asked, in a louder voice. No answer. f< Gertrude /" he cried, feeling about on the back seat. All was vacant there. " Gertrude !" he called again, steadying the glass, as well as he could, while he leaned over and felt, all about in the darkness inside the coach. •It was all vacant. He was the only passenger ! Then ho opened a window, threw the glass of spiced wine out upon the ground, and shouted to the stage-driver to stop. But the horses were going at such a fearful rate that he could not at first make his voice heard. , He shouted again, with ail the strength of his powerful lungs :

" Stop ! Stop ! There is a pftsaingep left behind! My vrii&H lefb behind^' 2 » ,r* ««- * , The stage-driver pulled up, r swearing-:. "Wo are behind r time' no*»+ Wfc&fc&i nap?" ! "My wife Js }ef t behind. " " The deuce ! ' " How far are we from Cedar^Cß!" ?'*" *• About half a mile, and wo are behind I time, sir. 1 couldn't stop nor g&pback - f or- r the President's wife of the United- States." " Then you, must let me out immediately* • J. must walk back!" exclaii^edt Colonel -'>. .Fitzgerald. The stage-driver, with a muAfc&r.ed- oath,got off his seat and came arc\*nd. to the - door, bringing one of the boxlaiifcenn&ini his hands. "Better take a good look itiside firsts . air. She may have dropped asledp in *a - corner somewheres," he said, as hd handed, ■ the lantern to the passenger. Colonel Fitzgerald took the !isht and t carefully inspected the interi is? -\of the coach, not with any expectation cMnding Gertrude there, however. Her little straw hat was still! hanging.: where he had placed it. Her twovtravel-ling-bags were sbill on the seat. E\ien her pocket-handkerchief was there ; -,but nob herself. "Of course she is not here h 21 lenew thafc quite well before I stopped the coach. She has been left behind at the post-house," said Colonel Fitzgerald, impatiently. "But how could such a thing .have happened, sir ?" "I do not know. I must get out and go back," answered Gerald Fitzgerald;- loading himself with Gertrude's effects, -#nd stepping from the coach to the roadside. "• And about your trunk, s'Vj?r "'Shall I take it off ?" "No; take it on to Washington. i We ■ shall go on by the next coach." "All right, sir. I am sonjyE cannot stop or go back for you: bub I cLarGiVt do it, sir, if you was the President c I Abe United States. " Of course I do not expect j m>to.do such a thing." " Good-night, sir," said the stage driver, cracking his whip. "Good-night," returned Colonel Fitzgerald. The driver started his hor f :asi>and drove eastward. The colonel turned his ste:>»)back west-; ward and walked down to tha post-house. "What a reckless little idia& she is, to be • sure, to have lefb the stape-ccs&ch to wander about alone ! Why in the c"3{non could she not have come out with me, ivb,en I invited and even urged her to do so * But no, f rom.t some caprice or other, she "must wait until, I was out of sight and then #reep out aloneand get left behind ! I shall have some - trouble to civilise my little savage !" ' growled Gerald Fitzgeral J4' &s he hurried; along the dark turnpike leading back ta. the post-house, The place was already slaved up, and nofe"a glimmer of light could be .seen. A pack of watch -dogs fourst up, barkings in full chorus, as he carao to the door. He spoke to them kindly, but was in* some danger of being- set upon, when a window was opened, &i#l a head thrust out, and an authoritative r/mQQ. first dogs to order, and th-sa demanded : " Who are you, andi what the demon do you want here at this-h/^ur of the night ?'? "I am a passeng&r. by the stage-coach that left here abo<*fe i bwenty minutes ago, and I have come b:>ck. for ray wife who 'has been lefb behind hiore. Come down and open the door," jyjswered Colonel 3£itj> gerald. " Beg pardon, sir I I really didn't ifinow who it was ; covidsVt see in the de^k. I will come down- directly. But I reckon you are mistakeß.abotitthe lady beißg'here. There is no one . staying here to-nigfefc but the family," s&iji ! the master of bheThouse, as he took Ms. head in and closed: the window. Gerald FiJ/igerald's heat sank^ ander a vague foreboding of evil. If Gertrude- was not in the ge&fc-hpuse, where cou»£s»she be ? Meantime* the man came dmvn in his shirt-sle©s\ef?, with a tallow candle stuck in a br&os candle-stick, held h;s, hand, and opened the door. " Y&u-say the lady is nob heyo.,?,"'apxiously inqusi'ed 1 Colonel Fitzgerald. "Xqs, sir, I said so. She. is not here, sir.. I' assuro you. There is; no, one staying hetQ' to-night except th.3 replied t&s man wibh the candle. "Pray excuse me, but, I am almpst eerfeafcn that she is here. Sbc. must be here ! Where else should she-— could she possibly be? Will you have the goodness to inquire among the women of th.^ family ?" requested. Colonel Fitzgerald, growing more anxious every moment. " Certainly, sir ; rhoupjh I d,oiVt think it will be of any usaj but I will do it, of course. Who is the lady, if you please, sir, and what might he her name." "She is my wife — Mrs Fitzgerald. While I was looking over the papers in the reading-room she must have loffc her seat in the coach and come into the house, for when I went back and took my seat, and let the coach start, supposing her to be there, I soon discovered her absence. She had been loft behind, Pray make the necessary inquiries in the house, will you ?" "Yos,sir. Do come in and sit down, while I go and wake up the ■"' -nen," said the man, as he led t\ • v into the now deserted reading 1 - : join, , lighted another candle and placed it on the table. Colonel Fitzgerald sank into a seat, and dropped the travelling-bags he had brought from the coach at his feet on the floor. "This is poi'fectly intolerable!" he exclaimed aloud, rising, and beginning to walk up and down the room in his vexation. "If she is not in this house, as Simpkins says she is nob, then she must certainly have wandered off alone into the garden, or the shrubbery, or the forest, and lost herself — -who. knows where ? At midnight in a wilderness like this ! , She is not only without, any sense of fear, but without any sense of decorum as well. But, after all, what can be expected of a weak girl, who at a moment's notice could accept an offer of marriage made in an hour of madness ? Yet she sceins a lovely little being, too." While Colonel Fitzgerald was tormenting himself with these thoughts, the door opened, and Mrs Simpkins and^ her two grown daughters entered the reading-room, their faces brimful of excitement and curiosity. " Did you expect to find your lady here, sir ? There has been no lady entered this house to night, sir, I could take my oajih. Do tell me all aboxit it, and maybe I mighb be able to put you on the right track, sir," said Mrs Simpkins. Colonel Fitzgerald repeated to her all he knew, or rathor, all he did not know, aboub the disappearance of his wife. " I never heard of such a thing in all the days of my life,", said Mrs Simpkins, while her two daughters, Becky and Sally, stared with their eyes and mouths wide open. "Can you suggest anything?'' inquired Colonel Fitzgerald, whose anxiety was now rising to extreme alarm. " Indeed I can't, unless the lady might have gone into some of the rooms without anyone seeing of her ; and she might have fainted dead away, and be lying there now. 'Taint likely, I must say ;, kut, anyway, ib is possible, and it oan't do no harm to sarch the house, if you would like to liavQ it d0.n0," said the landlady.

They seaiidheid vwell ovory nook ,and cranny in the .hauepji&'ut no lady was to be found in ifc. ' Then the laudlord.took his guest through tho back da(SOT,of, the,. house, through the back yard, through jiie garden, through the orchard, through the cornfield, and finally to fciieedge.ofttJje woods, wliere two log cabins stood side by side in the midst of their Htfclc c&bbagcjsa.rdens, but no sign of the missing girl .had,' been seen. They searched the, coava -field through and through, but no sign, of, tho lost girl could bo found. "I don't see, sir, fihatas^y thing more can be done to-night," said rthe landlord, as they retraced their -steps towards the house. " You will have to take.a.feed with us, sir, and resume your seauch ky daylight tomorrow," " No," said Colonel Fitzgerald firmly, " I cannot retire and give iup 'the search tonight, leaving the fate iof ,iaay wife in uncertainty, leaving herself tiuJsheltered, unprotected, wandering about in a strange • neighbourhood at midnight, .imposed to — s unutterable dangers ! I cannot ! ' •"But what the mischief vcan you do, sir?' 5 • {[#£3iired the host. - '** I must go into the fo mst -surrounding -this place, and search and call I may not find/lher, most probably I shall <uot, but I mu.«t spend the night in looking for her, if uec*?sary. I will take your lantern, if yoa^V^l be so kind as to lend it to xc&." " Are you determined to go, sir?** "E.ulS^' "Of .cvui\«e, then, you must have the *,iantevn. But come in and have a chink .befqre -yq^ start out on that wild " Thanks. I never drink. But do noi let .me keep j-ou out in the night air," sixii. j-ke colonel, \Y>'ho was impatient to bs off oii his unpromising 1 expedition. "Hold on, su* ! Don't be in s\ich a hurry. I hav,e just thought of something. Have you got anything belonging to the lady ?" "fi\vto" f i\vt0 tjaveilieg-bags," answered the colonel* pointing to them as they lay on tho floor. "Idon*^ mean anything like them. I mean soaie thing ttait she had worn or carried about her person. " ■ " Yes, there is her little straw hat, and there is her j>ocket-handkerehief. " "They will do! Now, I will tell yon what. We will take a certain dog that I have in my possession, carry it to the spot where the stage-coach stood, when she must have left it, show it the handkerchief and hat, let it get a good sniff at them to get scent, then set it on the trail, and it will run her down in an hour !" " What ! hunt a lady with a hound ! a i*ound that would terrify her to death, even if it did not tear her to pieces !" indignantly exclaimed Gerald Fitzgerald. " Bless you, no, sir ! I'm not talking about hounds ! I"m talking about my wife's little Skye-terrier, Nelly, who has a nose as keen as a sleuth-hound, with a temper as gentle as a lamb's. Nelly would not frighten a baby, I assure you, sir." " I beg your pardon ! And very gratefully I accept your otfer. By all means let us try Nelly's powers," said the Colonel, as he went and gathered up the hat and the handkerchief belonging to Gertrude. , At this moment ttjq landlady and her daughter re-entered the reading-room. At the landlord's request she soon brought the little, brown, curly-haired Skyo-torrier, which she set down upon the floor, "Come, Nelly," said the master, as he went to the door where Colonel Fitzgerald impatiently ay. aited him. The little dog bustled up eagerly and ran after her master. The two men walked to the spot where the stage coach had stood when Gertrude must have left it. " Now let me have that hat and handkerchief. She'll smell 'em, and then she'll scent out the very spot on which the lady alighted, and so she will trace her to where she is now,"' said the landlord, as he took the hat and handkerchief from Colonel Fitzgerald, and held them to the little dog's nose, saying : "Seek, Nelly, seek !'' The little creature looked up intelligently, wagged her tail, and went smelling all over the spot, until in a few minutes she gave a yelp of delight. She had struck the trail, and slowly and carefully she followed it, the two men walking a short distance behind him. Keeping her nose close to the ground, Nelly went up the turnpike a little way in the direction from which the stage had come. Then, after sniffing about for a few moments, still keeping her nose to the ground, she struck into a by-pafch, and went toward the belt of woods. " I felt sure she would go there," said Colonel Fitzgerald, as he followed. " I feel sure that she will go on to the right track,"' added the landlord, confidently, as he hastened his footsteps, for little Kelly was now trotting along very briskly. They followed her closely, and presenely entered thick woods by a narrow, grassgrown path, along which Nelly was scenting industriously. After a walk of a quarter of a mile into the forest, they entered a small, green glade, through which ran a little rill of clear water. Here Nelly stopped and nosed around in a circle, and then looked up utterly baffled. " Good dog ! Seek ! Seek !" cried the landlord. But Nelly wagged, and looked up in helplees distress. " Put her across the stream. She may recover the trail there," suggested Colonel Fitzgerald. The landlord took her up, and threw her j gently across the water, encouraging her with cries of : »' Good dog ! Good dog ! Seek ! Seek !" But Nelly only wagged her tail and looked up in distress. Colonel Fitzgerald sprang across the water, and began to examine the ground, Presently, he exclaimed : " There are traces of wheels here. This is an old road." ''Aye, so it is," said the landlord. "It is the old charcoal-burner's road. But it has been out of use so many years, I had forgotten all about it." At this moment, Nelly, who had been nosing industriously about among the dry leaves on the ground, gave a joyful bark, and bounded forward with something in her mouth, which she brought and laid at her master's feet. Mr Simpkine picked it up, looked at it, and with a significant glance, handed it to Colonel Fitzgerald. "It is my wife's glove," exclaimed the latter. But now the behaviour of Nelly agaiu attracted attention. She was nosing about in the most agitated manner, and suddenly wagging her tail, she trotted off down the old road, keeping her nose close to the ground. ' ' Come along, Colonel ! She has recovered the trail !" cried Simpkins. - (To to Continued.)

Why are troubles like babies ? Because they get bigger by nursing. , ; Tottie (aged five) : "My mamma's got a nevy eilk drsss, and your mamma ain't.-'— Harry (aged four): "I don't care ; my mamma can take her teeth out, and your mamma can't."