The boys did as they were bid and returned in five minutes. No sign of the girls had been seen. All called again. There was no answer. Mrs. Dartmoor came downstairs and added her cries to those of the men and the boys. Not a voice was heard in reply.
Rosita Dartmoor and Bella Caceras had disappeared.
CHAPTER XX.
A CHASE INTO THE PAMPAS COUNTRY.
They formed a startled group out in front of the Dartmoor Row, standing in the white of the moonlight, and for fully a minute not a sound came from them, except low moans from Mrs. Dartmoor’s lips. These, too, suddenly ceased, and the woman fell toward her husband.
“Quick, Louis! Help me! Your mother has fainted!”
The boy sprang to his father’s side.
“We must carry her upstairs.”
Captain Saunders also hurried to assist, and the three bore the deathlike mother to her bedroom, where restoratives were applied, and she soon regained consciousness.
“There, I am better now,” she said, as soon as she could sit upright. “I must go down and look for Rosita,” and she tried to struggle to her feet.
“No. Please don’t try to do that,” urged her husband. “Louis will go, and so will the captain, and with Señor Cisneros, Carl, and Harvey they will do all that is possible. I shall remain by your side until you are much better.”