“It is her work!” exclaimed Mrs. Fordham, roused to mad excitement.
“Impossible!” said Mrs. Weir. “Adele! Adele!” Her voice went thrilling through the house.
“Search everywhere, from garret to cellar!” Mrs. Fordham spoke in a commanding voice, and then went striding up-stairs and sweeping like a storm from room to room. Chambers, attics, lumber-rooms, closets, cellar, and out-buildings, they searched with scrupulous care; but neither Adele nor the child were found. Both had vanished from the house, leaving no sign.
CHAPTER XX.
THE RESCUE.
“This is going too far,” said Adele, as she came forward again and stood in sight of the room where the child lay in its fearfully-unnatural sleep, after Mrs. Fordham had gone down to the parlors to join Mrs. Weir and her companions. Slowly, listening almost breathlessly, and with silent footsteps, she descended the stairs, and, approaching the chamber, laid her hand upon the door-knob and turned and pressed against it. To her disappointment, she found that Mrs. Fordham had locked her prisoner in and withdrawn the key.
For a little while Adele stood by the door, her face shadowed with perplexity. She then moved silently away, and, going into her own room, sat down, with a sober face, to think. The right thought was soon suggested. Starting up with a sudden impulse, she went to the door of her own apartment and quickly withdrew the key. It fitted the lock, as she had hoped, and in less than ten seconds she was in the room where the child lay in its deathlike slumber. Carefully shutting the door, she crossed to the bed. The child had not stirred since Mrs. Fordham left the chamber. Stooping down, Adele gazed upon the pure young face, until tears blinded her eyes. Then, laying a hand upon her, she shook her gently. But not a sign of life, beyond the feeble respiration, appeared.
An expression half surprise, half fear, came into the young girl’s countenance; and she stood quite still for an instant. Then, laying her hand again upon the child, she shook her violently, putting at the same time her mouth to her ear, and saying, in a low but eager voice, “Wake! wake up! Come!”
But she might as well have spoken to the dead. The sleeper’s senses were locked by a key that was not in her possession; and so she could neither find the wards nor spring the bolt.
For a little while Adele remained bewildered and irresolute. Then she made a more violent effort to break the spell that shut the doors of conscious life. It was in vain.
“Time flies. It must be done now, or the opportunity may pass forever. Poor child! Poor lamb in the wolf’s grasp! I must, I will, save you!”