was thus entirely concealed, he, remembering Sissy's warning, kicked
about the leaves cautiously to find the crack of which she had spoken,
and discovered that the loose portion had already fallen. It suddenly
occurred to him to wonder if the girl could possibly have fallen with
it. Instantly he sprang down the ravine, feeling among the drifted
leaves on all sides, but nothing except rock and earth was to be found
under their light heaps. It took only a few minutes to assure him of the
needlessness of his fear. The low window of the room in which Sissy had
slept looked out immediately upon this drift of leaves, and, as Bates
passed it, he glanced through the uncurtained glass, as if the fact that
it was really empty was so hard for him to believe that it needed this
additional evidence. Then the stacks of fire-wood in front of the house
were all that remained to be searched, and Bates walked round, looking
into the narrow aisles between them, looking at the same time down the
hill, as if it might be possible that she had been on the shore and he
had missed her.

"What are you looking for?" asked the young American. The question was
not put rudely. There was a serenity about the youth's expectation of an
answer which, proving that he had no thought of over-stepping good
manners, made it, at the same time, very difficult to withhold an
answer.

Bates turned annoyed. He had supposed everybody was within.

"What have you lost?" repeated the youth.

"Oh--" said Bates, prolonging the sound indefinitely. He was not
deceitful or quick at invention, and it seemed to him a manifest
absurdity to reply--"a girl." He approached the house, words hesitating