One Maid's Mischief Part 51

"Must I?" said the lady, with a martyred look.

"If you please, ma'am," said Mrs Bolter, sternly; and the little lady looked as if she were ready to apply the moral thumbscrews and the rack itself to the visitor if she did not make a clean breast.

"Do you not know?" whispered Mrs Barlow, with a pathetic look, and a timidly bashful casting down of the eyes.

"No, ma'am, I do not," said little Mrs Bolter, haughtily.

"I thought you must have known," sighed the lady. "But under these circ.u.mstances, when he may be in terrible peril, perhaps crying aloud, 'Rosina, come to my aid,' why should I shrink from this avowal? I am _not_ ashamed to own it. Ah, Dr Bolter--oh, Mrs Bolter--I have loved him from his first sermon, when he looked down at me and seemed to address me with that soft, impressive voice which thrilled the very fibres of my heart, and now he is gone--he is gone! What does it mean!

What shall we do?"

"Mary, you'd better administer a little sal-volatile, my dear," said the doctor. "You know the strength; I'm off."

The doctor backed out of the room, leaving Mrs Barlow sobbing on the sofa, and hurried off in the direction of the Residency, talking to himself on the way.

"This is something fresh!" he muttered; "and it isn't leap-year either.

Rum creatures women! I wonder what Mary is saying to her now! Here, paddle me across," he said to one of the natives who was cleaning out his sampan ready for any pa.s.sengers who might want to be put across to the island.

As he neared the landing-stage, he found Mr Harley anxiously busy despatching boat after boat up and down stream, each boat being paddled by a couple of friendly natives, and containing a noncommissioned officer and private selected for their intelligence.

"Ah! that's right, Harley!" said the doctor, rubbing his hands after a friendly salute, and the information given and taken that there was not the slightest news of the missing people. "But don't you think we ought to take some steps ash.o.r.e?"

"Wait a moment; let me ease my mind by getting these fellows off," said the Resident hoa.r.s.ely; and he gave the men the strictest injunctions to carefully search the banks of the river, and also to closely question every Malay they met as to whether anything of the missing party had been seen. Eight boats had been sent off upon this mission, the men accepting the task readily enough, irrespective of the promise of reward; and hardly had the last been despatched, when the Resident proposed that they should go across to Mr Perowne's.

"It is only fair to consult him as to our next proceedings," said the Resident, gloomily; and almost in silence they were paddled across to the mainland, and went up to the scene of last night's festivities, where everything looked dismal and in confusion. Half-burnt lanterns hung amidst the trees, tables and chairs were piled up anyhow in the grounds, and the lawn was strewn with the _debris_ of the feast yet uncleared away, the attention of the servants having been so much occupied with their search.

The two new-comers found Mr Perowne quite prostrate with this terrible anxiety, and Mr Stuart trying, with his daughter, to administer some little consolation in the way of hope.

"Cheer up, mon!" the old Scot was saying. "I daresay she'll turn up all right yet."

Mr Perowne looked at him so reproachfully that the old Scot paused and then turned uneasily away.

"Poor wretch!" he muttered; "he has trouble eneuch--enough I mean."

"Ah! Harley, what news?" cried Mr Perowne.

"None as yet," was the reply.

"Have you sent out boats?"

"Yes, eight; and let us hope that they will discover something."

"But you do not think they will?"

The Resident was silent.

"Harley here thinks that the Rajah is at the bottom of it all," said the doctor.

"Impossible!" cried the unhappy father. "He was here when she was missed, or I might have suspected him. I fear it is something worse than even that."

"I cannot help my suspicions," said the Resident, quietly. "Perhaps I wrong him."

"I think ye do, Harley," said the old Scot. "I saw him here long after Miss Helen must have been gone. I'm thinking she and the young officers have taken a boat and gone down the river for a wee bit of game, seeing the night was fine."

"Oh! papa," cried Grey, "I am sure Helen would not have been so imprudent."

"I'm sure it's very kind of ye to think so well o' your schoolfellow, but I'm no' so sure. Trust me, the Rajah had no hand in the matter."

"He has plenty of servants who would work his will," said the Resident, thoughtfully; "but this charge of mine must not go forth to Murad's ears. If I am wronging an innocent man, we shall have made a fresh enemy; and Heaven knows we have enough without that!"

"You may be right," said the doctor, "but I have my doubts."

"He's wrong," said old Stuart. "He's not the man with the spirit in him to do so stirring a thing."

"And he would never take off those two young fellows and my brother-in-law."

"I begin to think he has," said Perowne, s.n.a.t.c.hing at the solution once more, after holding the opinion and casting it off a dozen times. "He has never forgiven her for her refusal. Are we to sit still under his insult, Harley? You have plenty of men under your command."

"True," said the Resident; "but should I be justified in calling them out and making a descent on Murad's town upon the barest suspicion?"

Suggestion after suggestion was offered, as the reason of the Resident's remark was fully realised; but as time went on the little knot of English people more fully than ever realised how helpless they were in the midst of the Malays, whose good offices they were compelled to enlist.

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FIVE.

A NEW PHASE.

The meeting was soon after strengthened by the arrival of Mrs Bolter and the princ.i.p.al ladies of the little community, when before long it became evident that Helen Perowne's behaviour had made the ladies of one mind.

Their sole idea was that which found vent at last from the lips of Mrs Bolter, who, after a good deal of pressing as to her belief, gave it:

"I am very sorry to express my feelings upon the subject," she said, "and perhaps I am prejudiced; but I cannot help thinking that Miss Perowne has eloped with Captain Hilton, and Lieutenant Chumbley has gone with them to save appearances."

"That doesn't account for Rosebury's disappearance, my dear," said the doctor, rather tartly, for he was annoyed at his wife's decided tone.

"I am sorry to say that Miss Perowne," continued the lady, "had gained a great deal of influence over my brother, and I daresay he would have acquiesced in anything she wished him to do."

"I am quite sure you are wronging Helen, and Mr Rosebury as well!"

cried Grey Stuart, suddenly. "Mrs Bolter, these words of yours are cruel in the extreme!"

"Maybe, my dear," said Mrs Bolter, tightening her lips.

"And I am sure," cried Grey, "that Captain Hilton would never have taken such a step; while Lieutenant Chumbley would have been the first to call it madness!"

"And who made you their champion, miss?" cried old Stuart, sharply.

"I only said what I thought was right, papa," said Grey, with no little dignity. "I could not stand by and hear Helen accused of so great a lapse of duty without a word in her defence."

"And I am sure, from her father to the humblest here," said the Resident, taking Grey's hand and kissing it, "we all honour you for your sentiments, Miss Stuart. And now, Mrs Bolter," he continued, turning to the doctor's wife, "as we have heard your belief, let me ask you, as a sensible woman, whether you think such an a.s.sertion can be true."