Bennett has always been a good friend to me, and so has his wife, and it would half kill them were they to know what I have heard; but as for her and that villain--" George's mouth closed in grim determination, and he strolled on home through the darkness.

Whatever his resolutions may have been, he found no opportunity of carrying them out, for the next morning he heard that Martha Bennett had disappeared.

How or why, no one knew.

She had been missing since tea time on the previous afternoon.

She had taken nothing with her, and the farmer and his two sons were searching all the neighbourhood for some sign of her.
The police of Stroud came over in the afternoon, and took up the investigation.