“If that’s the case, I’ll find her!” Rodney Granniss burst forth, his strong young face alight with zeal; “I’m going up there at once. Mr Varian didn’t like me, but Mrs Varian does, and maybe I can help her.”
“She can’t see you,” Dunn told him. “She’s under the influence of opiates all the time. Doctor Varian keeps her that way.”
“She’ll have to come to her senses some time,” said Rod. “I’m going up there any way.”
“I’m going with you,” declared Eleanor Varian. “I don’t want to stay here,—forgive me, Mrs Blackwood, you’re kindness itself,—but I want to be where father and mother are. I want to help find Betty, too. I know a lot of places to look——”
“You do!” exclaimed Dunn. “Where are they, now?”
But all that Eleanor mentioned, Dunn had already searched, and his hopes of the girl’s assistance fell. Still, she might be familiar with Betty’s ways, and might be of some slight use.
“Well, Miss Varian, you must do as you think best,” he said; “but I advise you to bide here till the morning, anyway.”
“Yes, do, dear,” urged Claire, and Eleanor, remembering the unavoidable climb up the steep rocks, consented.
“Tell me one thing, Miss Varian,” said Dunn, suddenly; “were you in the kitchen of the Varian house this afternoon at all?”
“Yes, I was; I went out there with Betty to get some cakes and things. Why?”