While their tongues were all going, in consternation, Mrs. Gaunt was suddenly among them, very pale.
They turned, and looked at her aghast.
"What means all this?" said she. "Did I not hear cries outside?"
"Ay," said Ryder: "Murder! and a pistol fired. Oh, my poor master!"
Mrs. Gaunt was white as death; but self-possessed. "Light torches this moment, and search the place," said she.
There was only one man in the house, and he declined to go out alone. So Ryder and Mrs. Gaunt went with him, all three bearing lighted links.
They searched the place where Ryder had heard the cries. They went up and down the whole bank of the mere, and east their torches; red light over the placid waters themselves. But there was nothing to be seen, alive or dead; no trace either of calamity or crime.
They roused the neighbors, and came back to the house with their clothes all draggled and dirty.
Mrs. Gaunt took Ryder apart, and asked her if she could guess at what time of the night Griffith had made his escape.
"He is a villain," said she, "yet I would not have him come to harm, God knows. There are thieves abroad. But I hope he ran away as soon as your back was turned, and so fell not in with them."