‘He did not enter it?’ cried Lizzie, turning pale.
‘Oh, didn’t he, though? De police gallop after him, and he run same like deer, and jump de fences, and go squash right in de swamp, where de hosses couldn’t follow him, ’cause of de morass. And William say when Massa Courcelles get on edge of swamp, he turn and wave his hand, and hollo, and dive in bushes. And den de police see no more of him; but dey is waiting dere now, horses and all, till he come out again. But Massa Courcelles nebber come out again, Missy Liz. Dat what all de niggers say; alligator and swamp take him pretty quick, and got him now, maybe, de bad fellow!’
Lizzie did not answer her chattering handmaid, except by asking,—
‘What time is it, Rosa?’
‘Jes’ gone tree, Missy Liz.’
‘And when did this happen? I mean when did the police lose sight of Monsieur de Courcelles in the Alligator Swamp?’
‘Eleben o’clock, missy.’
‘Four hours,’ said Lizzie to herself. ‘God help him! What can I do?’
She began turning over the contents of a medicine-chest as she thought thus, and pouring the liquid from one bottle into the other, in an apparently mechanical manner.
‘Rosa!’ she said suddenly, turning to her open-eyed attendant, ‘I am going out presently, and I may be detained longer than I anticipate. Take great care of baby whilst I am away, and put her to sleep in your own room to-night. Do you understand me?’