United States or Palau ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It was a sort of checkmate, and Lionel stood looking at the servant as if the man could telegraph some impossible aerial message to his master to bring him back then. "Is Captain Cannonby staying here?" was his next question. "No, sir. He was staying here, but he went away this morning." "He is home from Paris then?" "He came back two or three days ago, sir," replied the servant.
Cannonby says there cannot be a doubt that Frederick Massingbird is dead. He left him dead and buried, as he told you in Melbourne. We have been terrified and pained I trust for nothing."
In the first moment of tumultuous thought, Lionel almost felt as if some fairy must have been at work with a magic wand. It was all true. He linked his arm within Jan's, and listened to the recital in detail. Jan had found Mrs. Verner, on his arrival at Verner's Pride, weeping over letters from Australia; one from a Captain Cannonby, one from Sibylla.
I forget the name of the place; a sort of small village or settlement, I believe, where the people halted that were going to, or returning from, the diggings. Frederick was taken worse as they got there, and in a few hours he died." "Cannonby remaining with him?" "Yes. I am sure I have told you this before, Lionel. I told it to you on the night of my return." He was aware she had.
He never got well! I take it that it must have been a sort of intermittent fever pretty well one day, down ill the next for he had started for the place where John died I forget its name, but you'll find it written there. Only a few hours after quitting Melbourne, he grew worse and died." "Was he alone?" asked Lionel. "Captain Cannonby was with him.
"Do you know where he is gone?" "I don't, sir. I fancy it's somewhere in the country." "Dr. Cannonby would know?" "I dare say he would, sir. I should think so." Lionel turned to the door. Where was the use of his lingering? He looked back to ask a question. "You are sure that Captain Cannonby has gone out of town?" "Oh, yes, sir." He descended the steps, and the man closed the door upon him.
Jan hoisted himself on to the top of a high bureau, and sat in comfort. "He'd be buried like a dog," repeated Mrs. Verner. "What do they know about parsons and consecrated ground out there? Cannonby buried him, he says, and then he went back to Melbourne to carry the tidings to Sibylla." "Sibylla? Was Sibylla not with him when he died?" exclaimed Lionel. "It seems not.
I am by your side." "What is the reason that you wish to know?" "A little matter that regarded him and Cannonby. Was Cannonby with him when he died?" Sibylla, subdued still, yielded to the wish as she would probably have yielded at no other time. "Of course he was with him. They were but a day's journey from Melbourne.
Gordon's remembrance, as affording less chance of Sibylla's hearing of it again but to get information on another topic. He had been rapidly making up his mind during the latter half of breakfast, and had come to a decision. "Gordon, can you inform me where Captain Cannonby is to be found?" "Can you inform me where the comet that visited us last year may be met with this?" returned Mr. Gordon.
"Jan came here to tell me news that quite justified his sending for me, wherever I might be, or however occupied, Sibylla. He has succeeded in solving to-night the mystery which has hung over us; he has discovered who it is that we have been taking for Frederick Massingbird." "It is not Frederick Massingbird," cried Sibylla, speaking sharply. "Captain Cannonby says that it cannot be."
Word Of The Day