nd. Traveling alone. Ticket--second-class. Place--Edinburgh."

"Edinburgh!" repeated Blanche. "Oh, uncle! we shall lose her in a great
place like that!"

"We shall find her, my dear; and you shall see how. Duncan, get me
pen, ink, and paper. Mr. Murdoch, you are going back to the station, I
suppose?"

"Yes, Sir Patrick."

"I will give you a telegram, to be sent at once to Edinburgh."

He wrote a carefully-worded telegraphic message, and addressed it to The
Sheriff of Mid-Lothian.

"The Sheriff is an old friend of mine," he explained to his niece. "And
he is now in Edinburgh. Long before the train gets to the terminus
he will receive this personal description of Miss Silvester, with my
request to have all her movements carefully watched till further notice.
The police are entirely at his disposal; and the best men will be
selected for the purpose. I have asked for an answer by telegraph. Keep
a special messenger ready for it at the station, Mr. Murdoch. Thank you;
good-evening. Duncan, get your supper, and make yourself comfortable.
Blanche, my dear, go back to the drawing-room, and expect us in to tea
immediately. You will know where your friend is before you go to bed
to-night."

With those comforting words he returned to the gentlemen. In ten minutes
more they all appeared in the drawing-room; and Lady Lundie (firmly
persuaded that she had never closed her eyes) was back again in baronial
Scotland five hundred years since.

Blanche, watching her opportunity, caught her uncle alone.

"Now for your promise," she said. "You have made some important
discoveries at Craig Fernie. What are they?"

Sir Patrick's eye turned toward Geoffrey, dozing in an arm-chair in a
corner of the room. He showed a certain disposition to trifle with the
curiosity of his niece.

"After the discovery we have already made," he said, "can't you wait, my
dear, till we get the telegram from Edinburgh?"

"That is just what it's impossible for me to do! The telegram won't come
for hours yet. I want something to go on with in the mean time."

She seated herself on a sofa in the corner opposite Geoffrey, and
pointed to the vacant place by her side.

Sir Patrick had promised--Sir Patrick had no choice but to keep his
word. After another look at Geoffrey, he took the vacant place by his
niece.

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FOURTH.

BACKWARD.

"WELL?" whispered Blanche, taking her uncle confidentially by the arm.

"Well," said Sir Patrick,