'What can all this mean?' Arwed asked himself, as he returned to the session room.
'Mac Donalbain,' observed he to the governor, 'appeared to seek you with great haste; had he any very important favor to ask?'
'Not that I know of,' answered the governor. 'He came here only for a moment, to fulfill his promise that he would greet me at Tornea. He was obliged to decline my invitation to dinner because of an engagement with a hunting party.'
'Has Mac Donalbain been here?' asked Megret, hastily entering the room.
'But a moment since,' answered Arwed, 'and he cannot now be far off. What do you wish of him?'
'A crowd of Laplanders,' said Megret, 'are seeking, with spears and poles, in all the streets of Tornea for a huntsman, who, according to their description, can be no other than Mac Donalbain; and I should be very happy to place the noble gentleman before the good people, so that I might learn precisely what they want of him.'
'We shall probably find him in the garden,' answered Arwed, and they hastened there together. But the garden was empty. 'Incomprehensible!' exclaimed the sheriff, who had followed them. 'The garden gate leading to the street is closed, and I have the key with me.'
'Not so incomprehensible as you may suppose,' rejoined Megret, pointing to a hedge-row by the garden wall whose freshly broken and trampled branches plainly showed that some one had recently clambered over them.
'Your pardon, sir officer,' stammered the sheriff, examining the damaged hedge, 'that is still more incomprehensible,--for what could have induced the gentleman to climb over the wall, and thus do me so great an injury?'
'That, master sheriff,' answered Megret, 'is to me most comprehensible, if I am right in my suspicions.'