He hastily
arranged for a patrol of the only road by which Briscoe could return,
incongruously feeling at the moment absurd and shamefaced in view of his
host's indignation and ridicule should he presently appear. Bayne had
ordered the phaeton with the intention of himself rousing the
country-side and organizing a search when, to his consternation, the two
ladies, who had observed the colloguing group, issued on the veranda,
frantic with terror, pale and agonized. Both had grasped the fact of
disaster, albeit unformulated, yet both hoped against hope.
"Take me with you!" Lillian cried, seizing Bayne's wrist in a grip like
steel. "Take me to my child!"
He could not be rid of her importunacy, and he came to think it was well
that the two should be separated, for Mrs. Briscoe had not abandoned all
self-control, and her gallant struggle for composure appealed for his
aid.
"No," she had said firmly; "Ned would expect me to wait for him here.
Dead or alive, he will come back to me here.
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