From the moment when she vanished from the eyes of the servant-woman watching her departure from the Grange gate, she seemed to have disappeared altogether from the sight of mankind.

If by some witchcraft she had melted into the dim autumnal mist that hung about the river-bank, she could not have left less trace, or vanished more mysteriously than she had done.

The local constabulary gave in very soon, in spite of Gilbert Fenton's handsome payment in the present, and noble promises of reward in the future.

The local constabulary were honest and uninventive.

They shook their heads gloomily, and said "Drownded." "But the river has been dragged," Gilbert cried eagerly, "and there has been nothing found." He shuddered at the thought of that which might have been hauled to shore in the foul weedy net.