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A Strange Discovery by Charles Romyn Dake
page 115 of 201 (57%)
missing. Search was diligently made. Pym was wild with excitement; and
as the morning wore on Peters grew almost mad. (I shall speak of
morning, afternoon, evening, and night. The degree of light in Hili-li
did not now vary in the twenty-four hours; but it is necessary that I
should in some manner divide the day, and our usual method seems the
best.) The Duke himself arrived at about ten o'clock, by which time the
search had ceased, and what to do next had become the question. The Duke
appeared surprised at something, and spoke a few words to his son, a
young man of twenty-two or twenty-three, by name Diregus, who thereupon
looked slightly foolish, as one does who has made some puerile mistake.
The Duke appeared to feel a real touch of pity for Pym, who sat
dejected, a picture of intense anguish, now and then casting a
beseeching look at the Duke--the only person who, to his mind, might be
able to assist him to regain his sweetheart. The Duke again spoke to his
son, who, turning to Pym, motioned him to accompany them. Then, followed
by Peters, they walked down to the shore, and entered a boat.

"From the moment of starting, every movement of the Hili-lites seemed as
if prearranged. It was a peculiarity of this people that a number of
them acting together talked very little, each of the party appearing to
know the wishes and intentions of the others, without a word spoken. And
so was it on this occasion. Scarcely a word was uttered, and each seemed
to comprehend the wishes of the others, mainly by glances and by
semi-involuntary movements. In the present instance, father and son did
not once glance at each other, yet the son was evidently aware of each
wish of the father. They finally came to a landing, across the bay, in
the suburbs of the city most distant from the locality in which stood
the ducal palace. There, some four hundred feet from the shore, amid
giant trees, in spacious and seemingly neglected grounds, stood a very
large residence, evidently many centuries old, and of a style of
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