Part 57 (1/2)
”By the G.o.ds, I think I have lost my train!” said Fitzpiers.
”Dear me--whereabouts are we?” said she.
”Two miles in the direction of Sherton.”
”Then do you hasten on, Edgar. I am not in the least afraid. I recognize now the part of the wood we are in and I can find my way back quite easily. I'll tell my father that we have made it up. I wish I had not kept our meetings so private, for it may vex him a little to know I have been seeing you. He is getting old and irritable, that was why I did not. Good-by.”
”But, as I must stay at the Earl of Wess.e.x to-night, for I cannot possibly catch the train, I think it would be safer for you to let me take care of you.”
”But what will my father think has become of me? He does not know in the least where I am--he thinks I only went into the garden for a few minutes.”
”He will surely guess--somebody has seen me for certain. I'll go all the way back with you to-morrow.”
”But that newly done-up place--the Earl of Wess.e.x!”
”If you are so very particular about the publicity I will stay at the Three Tuns.”
”Oh no--it is not that I am particular--but I haven't a brush or comb or anything!”
CHAPTER XLVIII
All the evening Melbury had been coming to his door, saying, ”I wonder where in the world that girl is! Never in all my born days did I know her bide out like this! She surely said she was going into the garden to get some parsley.”
Melbury searched the garden, the parsley-bed, and the orchard, but could find no trace of her, and then he made inquiries at the cottages of such of his workmen as had not gone to bed, avoiding Tangs's because he knew the young people were to rise early to leave. In these inquiries one of the men's wives somewhat incautiously let out the fact that she had heard a scream in the wood, though from which direction she could not say.
This set Melbury's fears on end. He told the men to light lanterns, and headed by himself they started, Creedle following at the last moment with quite a burden of grapnels and ropes, which he could not be persuaded to leave behind, and the company being joined by the hollow-turner and the man who kept the cider-house as they went along.
They explored the precincts of the village, and in a short time lighted upon the man-trap. Its discovery simply added an item of fact without helping their conjectures; but Melbury's indefinite alarm was greatly increased when, holding a candle to the ground, he saw in the teeth of the instrument some frayings from Grace's clothing. No intelligence of any kind was gained till they met a woodman of Delborough, who said that he had seen a lady answering to the description her father gave of Grace, walking through the wood on a gentleman's arm in the direction of Sherton.
”Was he clutching her tight?” said Melbury.
”Well--rather,” said the man.
”Did she walk lame?”
”Well, 'tis true her head hung over towards him a bit.”
Creedle groaned tragically.
Melbury, not suspecting the presence of Fitzpiers, coupled this account with the man-trap and the scream; he could not understand what it all meant; but the sinister event of the trap made him follow on.
Accordingly, they bore away towards the town, shouting as they went, and in due course emerged upon the highway.
Nearing Sherton-Abbas, the previous information was confirmed by other strollers, though the gentleman's supporting arm had disappeared from these later accounts. At last they were so near Sherton that Melbury informed his faithful followers that he did not wish to drag them farther at so late an hour, since he could go on alone and inquire if the woman who had been seen were really Grace. But they would not leave him alone in his anxiety, and trudged onward till the lamplight from the town began to illuminate their fronts. At the entrance to the High Street they got fresh scent of the pursued, but coupled with the new condition that the lady in the costume described had been going up the street alone.
”Faith!--I believe she's mesmerized, or walking in her sleep,” said Melbury.
However, the ident.i.ty of this woman with Grace was by no means certain; but they plodded along the street. Percombe, the hair-dresser, who had despoiled Marty of her tresses, was standing at his door, and they duly put inquiries to him.
”Ah--how's Little Hintock folk by now?” he said, before replying.
”Never have I been over there since one winter night some three year ago--and then I lost myself finding it. How can ye live in such a one-eyed place? Great Hintock is bad enough--hut Little Hintock--the bats and owls would drive me melancholy-mad! It took two days to raise my sperrits to their true pitch again after that night I went there.