The Midnight Queen - Page 18/177

The search was given over at last in despair, and the doctor took his

hat and disappeared. Sir Norman and Ormiston stopped in the lower hall

and looked at each other in mute amaze.

"What can it all mean?" asked Ormiston, appealing more to society at

large than to his bewildered companion.

"I haven't the faintest idea," said Sir Norman, distractedly; "only I am

pretty certain, if I don't find her, I shall do something so desperate

that the plague will be a trifle compared to it!"

"It seems almost impossible that she can have been carried off--doesn't

it?"

"If she has!" exclaimed Sir Norman, "and I find out the abductor, he

won't have a whole bone in his body two minutes after!"

"And yet more impossible that she can have gone off herself," pursued

Ormiston with the air of one entering upon an abstruse subject, and

taking no heed whatever of his companion's marginal notes.

"Gone off herself! Is the man crazy?" inquired Sir Norman, with a stare.

"Fifteen minutes before we left her dead, or in a dead swoon, which is

all the same in Greek, and yet he talks of her getting up and going off

herself!"

"In fact, the only way to get at the bottom of the mystery," said

Ormiston, "is to go in search of her. Sleeping, I suppose, is out of the

question."

"Of course it is! I shall never sleep again till I find her!"

They passed out, and Sir Norman this time took the precaution of turning

the key, thereby fulfilling the adage of locking the stable-door when

the steed was stolen. The night had grown darker and hotter; and as they

walked along, the clock of St. Paul's tolled nine.

"And now, where shall we go?" inquired Sir Norman, as they rapidly

hurried on.

"I should recommend visiting the house we found her first; if not there,

then we can try the pest-house."

Sir Norman shuddered.

"Heaven forefend she should be there! It is the most mysterious thing

ever I heard of!"

"What do you think now of La Masque's prediction--dare you doubt still?"

"Ormiston, I don't know what to think. It is the same face I saw, and

yet--"

"Well--and yet--"

"I can't tell you--I am fairly bewildered. If we don't find the lady st

her own house, I have half a mind to apply to your friend, La Masque,

again."

"The wisest thing you could do, my dear fellow. If any one knows your

unfortunate beloved's whereabouts, it is La Masque, depend upon it."

"That's settled then; and now, don't talk, for conversation at this

smart pace I don't admire."

Ormiston, like the amiable, obedient young man that he was, instantly

held his tongue, and they strode along at a breathless pace. There was

an unusual concourse of men abroad that night, watching the gloomy face

of the sky, and waiting the hour of midnight to kindle the myriad of

fires; and as the two tall, dark figures went rapidly by, all supposed

it to be a case of life or death. In the eyes of one of the party,

perhaps it was; and neither halted till they came once more in sight

of the house, whence a short time previously they had carried the

death-cold bride. A row of lamps over the door-portals shed a yellow,

uncertain light around, while the lights of barges and wherries were

sown like stars along the river.