The three departed, and then the sisters-in-law left the room and went upstairs, Minna making no resistance to Janet’s suggestions.
Left alone with the dead, Doctor Varian and young Landon looked at each other.
“What does it all mean?” asked the younger man, a look of absolute bewilderment on his face.
“I can’t make it out,” returned the other, slowly. “But it’s a pretty awful situation. Now the women are gone, I’ll speak out the thing that troubles me most. Where’s Betty?”
“Who? Miss Varian? Why, yes, where is she? She came for her camera, you know. She—why, she must be in the house.”
“She must be,—that is,—I can’t see any alternative. I understand there’s no way out of this house, save down the path we took.”
“No other, sir.”
“Then if the girl’s in the house,—she must be found.”
“Yes,——” and Landon saw the terrible fear in the other’s eyes, and his own glance responded. “Shall we search the rooms?”
“That must be done. Now, I’m not willing to leave the body of my brother unattended. Will you watch by it, while I run over the house, or the other way about?”