His heart became lead, and the awful conviction got hold of him that the most woeful affliction of all had come upon them, and that his betrothed was lost irrecoverably.
But the sight of the anguish of the parent when he turned about and faintly gasped, "Where is my child ?" brought the self-command of the young man back.
It was the despairing question wrung from the heart of the parent, with a grief that was no keener than that of Jack Everson himself.

Here was another instance of the appalling suddenness with which tragedies began and were completed in this infernal country.

A band of half a dozen was cut off within the space of a few minutes, and now, in still less time, a young woman vanished as if she had never been.
Jack did not dare trust his voice in the effort to speak, but when his eyes met those of the parent he shook his head, saying by the gesture: "God have mercy, I cannot answer." But strong men do not remain dazed and helpless in the presence of a shuddering calamity.

If any one thing could be set down as certain it was that Miss Marlowe had left the place by fleeing deeper into the jungle.

She could not have approached them without being observed: therefore they must seek her by taking the same direction.
The energy of the man more than threescore under the spur of his anguish was like that of the athlete of one-third of his years.