LITMIR.BIZ

      CHAPTER VI.

      "Why in the world is the house lighted up like that?" exclaimed Anne, when she and Gilbert turned in at the gate at eleven o'clock. "Company must have come."

      But there was no company visible when Anne hurried into the house. Nor was anyone else visible. There was a light in the kitchen … in the living-room … in the library … in the dining-room … in Susan's room and the upstairs hall … but no sign of an occupant.

      "What do you suppose," began Anne … but she was interrupted by the ringing of the telephone. Gilbert answered … listened for a moment, … uttered an ejaculation of horror … and tore out without even a glance at Anne. Evidently something dreadful had happened and there was no time to be wasted in explanations.

      Anne was used to this … as the wife of a man who waits on life and death must be. With a philosophical shrug she removed her hat and coat. She felt a trifle annoyed with Susan, who really shouldn't have gone out and left all the lights blazing and all the doors wide open.

      "Mrs. … Dr. … dear," said a voice that could not possibly be Susan's … but was.

      Anne stared at Susan. Such as Susan … hatless … her grey hair full of bits of hay … her print dress shockingly stained and discoloured. And her face!

      "Susan! What has happened? Susan!"

      "Little Jem has disappeared."

      "Disappeared!" Anne stared stupidly. "What do you mean? He can't have disappeared!"

      "He has," gasped Susan, wringing her hands. "He was on the side steps when I went to the Glen. I was back before dark … and he was not there. At first … I was not scared … but I could not find him anywhere. I have searched every room in the house … he said he was going to run away … "

      "Nonsense! He wouldn't do that, Susan. You have worked yourself up unnecessarily. He must be somewhere about … he has fallen asleep … he must be somewhere around."

      "I have looked everywhere … everywhere. I have combed the grounds and the outhouses. Look at my dress … I remembered he always said it would be such fun to sleep in the hay-loft. So I went there … and fell through that hole in the corner into one of the mangers in the stable … and lit on a nest of eggs. It is a mercy I did not break a leg … if anything can be a mercy when Little Jem is lost."

      Annie still refused to feel perturbed.

      "Do you think he could have gone to the Harbour Mouth with the boys, after all, Susan? He has never disobeyed a command before, but … "

      "No, he did not, Mrs. Dr. dear … the blessed lamb did not disobey. I rushed down to Drews' after I had searched everywhere and Bertie Shakespeare had just got home. He said Jem had not gone with them. The pit seemed to drop out of my stomach. You had trusted him to me and … I phoned Paxtons' and they said you had been there and gone they did not know where."

      "We drove to Lowbridge to call on the Parkers… ."

      "I phoned everywhere I thought you could be. Then I went back to the village … the men have started out to search … "

      "Oh, Susan, was that necessary?"

      "Mrs. Dr. dear, I had looked everywhere … everywhere that child could be. Oh, what I have gone through this night! And he said he was going to jump into the pond… ."

      In spite of herself a queer little shiver ran over Anne. Of course Jem wouldn't jump into the pond … that was nonsense … but there was an old dory on it which Carter Flagg used for trouting and Jem might, in his defiant mood of the earlier evening, have tried to row about the pond in it … he had often wanted to … he might even have fallen into the pond trying to untie the dory. All at once her fear took terrible shape.

      "And I haven't the slightest idea where Gilbert has gone," she thought wildly.

      "What's all this fuss about?" demanded Aunt Mary Maria, suddenly appearing on the stairs, her head surrounded by a halo of crimpers and her body encased in a dragon-embroidered dressing-gown. "Can't a body ever get a quiet night's sleep in this house?"

      "Little Jem has disappeared," said Susan again, too much in the grip of terror to resent Miss Blythe's tone. "His mother trusted me … "

      Anne had gone to search the house for herself. Jem must be somewhere! He was not in his room … the bed was undisturbed… . He was not in the twins' room … in hers… . He was … he was nowhere in the house. Anne, after a pilgrimage from garret to cellar, returned to the living-room in a condition that was suddenly akin to panic.

      "I don't want to make you nervous, Annie," said Aunt Mary Maria, lowering her voice creepily, "but have you looked in the rainwater hogshead? Little Jack MacGregor was drowned in a rainwater hogshead in town last year."

      "I … I looked there," said Susan, with another wring of her hands. "I … I took a stick … and poked … "

      Anne's heart, which had stood still at Aunt Mary Maria's question, resumed operations. Susan gathered herself together and stopped wringing her hands. She had remembered too late that Mrs. Dr. dear should not be upset.

      "Let us calm down and pull together," she said in a trembling voice. "As you say, Mrs. Dr. dear, he must be somewhere about. He cannot have dissolved into thin air."

      "Have you looked in the coal-bin? And the clock?" asked Aunt Mary Maria.

      Susan had looked in the coal-bin but nobody had thought of the clock. It was quite big enough for a small boy to hide in. Anne, not considering the absurdity of supposing that Jem would crouch there for four hours, rushed to it. But Jem was not in the clock.

      "I had a feeling something was going to happen when I went to bed tonight," said Aunt Mary Maria, pressing both hands to her temples. "When I read my nightly chapter in the Bible the words, 'Ye know not what a day may bring forth,' seemed to stand out from the page as it were. It was a sign. You'd better nerve yourself to bear the worst, Annie. He may have wandered into the marsh. It's a pity we haven't a few bloodhounds."

      With a dreadful effort Anne managed a laugh.

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