Rothsay left the talkative hackman and passed on.
He turned and saw old Scythia, clothed in a long, black cloak of some thin stuff, with its hood drawn over her head.
"Come, Rule! You have tested woman's love to-day, and found it fail you; even as I tested man's faith in the long ago, and found it wrong me! Come, Rule! You and I have had enough of falsehood and treachery! Let us shake the dust of civilization off our shoes! Come, Rule!"
The amazement and confusion that followed the discovery of the mysterious disappearance of Governor-elect Regulas Rothsay, on the morning of the day of his intended inauguration, has been already described in an earlier chapter of this story.
The most searching inquiries were made in all directions without any satisfactory result.
Then advertisements were put in all the principal newspapers in all the chief towns and cities throughout the country, offering large rewards for any information that should lead to the discovery of the missing man or of his fate.
These in time drew forth letters from all points of the compass from people anxious to take a chance in this lottery of a reward, and who fabricated reports of the lost governor having been seen in this, that, or the other place, or of his body having been found here, there or elsewhere.
Prompt investigation proved the falsehood of these fraudulent letters in every instance.
No one really knew the fate of the missing man. No one but Cora Rothsay had even the clew to the cause of his disappearance; and she--from her sensitive pride, no less than from her sacred promise not to reveal the subject of her communicaton to her husband on that fatal evening of his flight or of his death--kept her lips sealed on that subject.
Days, weeks and months passed away without bringing any authentic news of the lost ruler.
At length hope was given up. The advertisements were withdrawn from the papers.
Still occasionally, at long intervals of time, vague rumors reached his friends--a sailor had seen him in the streets of Rio de Janeiro; a fur trader had found him in Washington Territory; a miner had met him in California--but nothing came of all these reports.
One morning, late in December, there came some news, not of the actual fate of the governor, but of the long-lost man who had seen the last of him alive.