[CHAPTER VI.]
ANOTHER MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.
WHEN Lizzie's flight was discovered, her master went at once to tell her mother and father, and advised that Mr. Betts should go with him and inform the police of what had happened.
This was done, and by ten o'clock that Sunday morning, every policeman in the town had received instructions to look after a girl in a straw hat carrying a bundle.
But, as we know, Lizzie was not likely to be met with near any of the routes these policemen would traverse; and so Jack and her father, as well as her master and mistress, went in vain to the police-station for news of her, for no one had seen a girl answering such a description as was given, within reach of the town that day. From sheer inability to sit still and do nothing, Jack and his father had gone in search of her themselves.
Emma Russell was visited, and asked all sorts of questions; but beyond the fact that Lizzie did not like service, and wanted to go home and help her mother with the washing, she knew nothing. Certainly she had never heard her say anything about going away. She had not seen her for a week; for although they had arranged to meet and walk home together on Wednesday, and Emma had waited at the corner of the road for her, Lizzie never came, and she, Emma, had been obliged to run all the way home to make up for the time she had wasted in waiting.
Jack pondered over this; for, although there seemed nothing in it likely to lead to the solution of the mystery at first, taken in connection with another little bit of information that he learned during the day, it might have some important bearing in the case.
Lizzie had been out that Wednesday evening, he heard; for someone had seen her hurrying in the direction of Snowfields with her best hat on, and another friend had seen her leave the fair, talking to a stout woman dressed in a plaid shawl. The friend had not spoken to Lizzie, for he thought the woman might be a neighbour who had come to take care of her, as it was rather late for a girl like Lizzie to be out.
So Jack's next quest was for this woman, and he went home to ask his mother which of the neighbours wore a plaid shawl. And the garments usually worn by everybody they knew were discussed; but only about two had ever been seen in plaid shawls, and they were by no means stout individuals.
But still Jack went to make inquiries of them, for he was ready to catch at any straw that was likely to afford a clue to the heart of this mystery; but, of course, he met with blank disappointment. Neither of these people had seen Lizzie lately, nor had they been near Snowfields for some months.