“Oh, she is not! she is not!” cried Erminie, wringing her hands. “She started for Heath Hill, and had no intention of going anywhere else. Wild and daring as she is, she would not venture to walk alone through the forest after night. Oh, holy saints! what can have become of her?”
“We are losing time talking,” said Ray, whose face was now perfectly colorless with contending emotions. “Mount, Ranty, and ride back to Heath Hill and the White Squall, and see if she has returned to either place since you left. I will go to Dismal Hollow and Judestown, and search for her there. If she is to be found in neither of these places, then it must be too true that she has fallen into the hands of the smugglers.”
Ranty, alarmed, but still incredulous, sprung on his horse and galloped rapidly in the direction of the White Squall, while Ray, at an equally rapid and excited pace, took the opposite road leading to Dismal Hollow. And Erminie, white with vague, nameless, but terrible apprehension, remained behind, to pace up and down the floor, wring her hands and strain her eyes in anxious watching for their return.
Ranty was the first to return, with the alarming tidings that nothing had been heard of her at either place since. Nearly wild with terror now, Erminie continued her excited pace up and down the room, crying bitterly.
“Oh! I should not have let her go! I should not have let her go! I ought to have kept her all night. I knew it was dangerous crossing the heath, and I should not have let her attempt it alone. Oh, if Ray would only come!”
But another long, seemingly interminable hour passed before Ray made his appearance, and then he came dashing up, pale, wild and excited.
His eyes met Ranty’s as he entered. That glance told all—both had failed.
“You have not found her?” said Ranty, hurriedly.
“No; but I heard enough to confirm my worst suspicions. Late yesterday afternoon, Orlando Toosypegs says he saw one of the gang, a fellow called Black Bart, accompanied by some one else, he could not discern who, but doubtless another of the outlaws, take the forest-road leading this way. Pet has been waylaid and entrapped by them, there can be no doubt; for neither of them have been seen since.”
Erminie dropped, like one suddenly stricken, into a seat, and hid her face in her hands. Brother and lover looked in each other’s pale faces with an unspoken: “What next?”