"They won't hurt for a minute or two more. They have something to tell you, sir--something I thought that you ought to hear before any one else."
"Indeed!" said the Head. "And what is it? Speak quickly, and let them go; they will catch bad colds."
So Warren told the story for them, and placed their catch before the Head. And Dr. Beverly, great man as he was, shook these two happy juniors by the hand, and called them clever boys, and dismissed them to revel in special tea in the matron's room after he had strictly enjoined both them and the monitor not to say a word of this, even to Charlton or Ralph Rexworth.
But Ralph had not come home, and it was getting late now. He had been long enough to get to Crab Tree Hill and back twice over. What could have happened to Ralph Rexworth?
Ralph Rexworth stood in the old ruin, looking very perplexed. He could not find Mr. Charlton anywhere. He had whistled, and called, and searched, but not a trace of the hiding man could he discover.
He felt anxious. What could it mean? Had the hiding-place been discovered, and his chum's unfortunate parent again been taken prisoner? Unless that was the case, he was at a loss to account for the man's absence.
"It is no use waiting any longer," he mused, after he had searched the ruin through for the third time. "He has not hurt himself and fallen anywhere in here. He must have been alarmed, and have fled, unless he is taken. Poor old Fred will be horribly worried when I go back and tell him; but there is nothing else for me to do, and I shall be late back, as it is."
He sighed. His friend's anxiety for his parent would be something like what he felt for his missing father. It made Ralph think of that again, and of the strange cry which he had heard in that place. He could not understand that. As he stood there he felt an uncontrollable impulse to penetrate to that lonely house again, to risk meeting the dogs, and to try the effects of his call once more.
"I am bound to be late, anyhow," he muttered, "so here goes." And he set off. Perhaps he might meet Charlton's father in the wood.
But--he stopped suddenly--what did this mean? There, on the soft ground, were those tracks once more! Lord Elgert's lame mare had been here! Did that mean that Lord Elgert himself had been; or had he lent his trap to the police again, and had they managed to run their victim down?