“But you yourself have told us of the uncertainty of the mails.”
“Yes, and that might have been an explanation, and therefore a kind of comfort, for failing to get a single letter in time. But when three or four that I should have got have failed to come, it is strange and alarming.”
Neither Cleve nor Palma found anything to answer to this. They knew and felt that it was both “strange and alarming.”
“Let us hope that you will get a letter within a few days,” at length ventured Stuart.
“Why, you may get one even to-morrow,” hopefully exclaimed Palma.
“Oh, yes! And I may have to sail for England in the most agonizing anxiety as to Judy’s fate!” said Ran with a profound sigh.
“But there is no reason for such an intense anxiety. She is in excellent hands,” said Palma.
“Oh! but when I came away there was a talk of the intended rising of the Indians! Good Heaven! the fort may have been stormed and all hands massacred for all I know!” exclaimed the youth, growing pallid at the very thought.
“Randolph!” cried Palma in horror.
“Nothing of that sort could have happened without our having heard of it before this. The authorities at Washington would have received the news, and it would have been in all the papers. Some survivor would have escaped to the nearest telegraph station and sent the message flying to Washington,” said Cleve.