Sybil began to prepare the breakfast, but none of the party felt like eating it.
“And that is another sign of opium! We have no appetite,” observed Lyon Berners, as they sat down around the table-cloth; and instead of discussing the viands before them, they discussed the events of the preceding day and night.
Lyon Berners remembered that Sybil and himself had spent nearly the whole of the preceding afternoon in rambling through the woods; and he suggested as the only solution of the mystery that, during their absence some one had entered the chapel, and put opium in their food and drink.
“‘Some one;’ but whom?” inquired Captain Pendleton, incredulously.
“Most probably the girl whom we have seen here,” answered Mr. Berners.
“But for what purpose do you think she drugged your drink?”
“To throw us into a deep sleep for many hours, which would enable her to come and go, to and from the chapel, undiscovered and unmolested.”
“But why should she wish to come back and forth to such a dreary, empty old place as this?”
“Ah! that I cannot tell; at that point conjecture is utterly baffled,” answered Lyon.
“Yes; because conjecture has been pursuing a phantom—a phantom that vanishes upon being nearly approached. I cannot accept your theory of the mystery, Berners; and what is worse, I cannot substitute one of my own,” said Captain Pendleton, shaking his head.