“I wouldn’t be very happy about getting away myself unless Zara escaped, too, Mr. Jamieson. And I’m afraid of Mr. Holmes–I don’t know what he might do if he were angry enough. I wouldn’t be sure that Dolly and Miss Eleanor were safe with him.”
“Well, they are, Bessie. Of course, what I’m planning may go wrong, but I feel pretty confident that we are going to give Mr. Holmes the surprise of his life this night.”
They walked on steadily through the darkness, the going of course being much easier than Bessie had found it in her flight, since she now had a good road under her feet instead of the stumpy wood path, full of twisted roots and unexpected bumps.
And at last a light showed through the trees to one side of the road, and Bessie stopped.
“That’s the place, I’m pretty sure,” she said. “I can tell for certain, if we turn in, but I’m sure I didn’t pass another house.”
So they went in, and a minute’s examination enabled Bessie to recognize the grounds. She had had plenty of time to study them earlier in the night, when she had crouched behind the rose bushes, expecting to be discovered and dragged out every time one of the searchers passed near her.
“I wish I knew about Trenwith,” said Charlie, anxiously. “That is one part of this night’s work that puzzles me. I don’t understand it at all, and it worries me.”
“He went off with Mr. Holmes after we got inside the house,” said Bessie. “But I didn’t see him again after that. He wasn’t with Mr. Holmes in the big hall again, after I had got away. I’m sure of that.”
“What are you going to do now?” asked Bessie.
“I’m not certain. I’d like very much to know where the other girls are. We ought to be all together.”