ummoned in London. The story of
Black Bill which Obed gave was one which was full of awful horror. It
showed the unrelenting and pitiless cruelty of those who had made
themselves her enemies; their profound genius for plotting, and their
far-reaching cunning. He saw that these enemies must be full of
boldness and craft far beyond what is ordinarily met with. Black
Bill's account of Gualtier's behavior on the boat when the men tried
to mutiny impressed him deeply. The man that could commit such a deed
as he had done, and then turn upon a desperate crew as he did, to
baffle them, to subdue them, and to bring them into submission to his
will, seemed to him to be no common man. His flight afterward, and
the easy and yet complete way in which he had eluded all his
pursuers, confirmed this view of his genius. Obed himself, who had
labored so long, and yet so unsuccessfully, coincided in this
opinion.

The chief subject of interest in these affairs to both of these men
was Zillah; yet, though the conversation revolved around her as a
centre, no direct allusion was for some time made to her present
situation. Yet all the while Lord Chetwynde was filled with a
feverish curiosity to know where she was, whether she was still with
Obed's family, or had left them; whether she was far away from him,
or here in Florence. Such an immensity of happiness or of misery
seemed to him at that time to depend on this thing that he did not
dare to ask the question. He waited to see whether Obed himself might
not put an end to this suspense. But Obed's thoughts were all
absorbed by the knotty question which had been raised by the
appearance of Black Bill with his story. From the London police he
had received no fresh intelligence since his departure, though every
day he expected to hear something. From the Marseilles authorities he
had heard nothing since his last visit to that city, and a letter
which he had recently dispatched to the prefect at Naples had not yet
been answered. As far as his knowledge just yet was concerned, the
whole thing had gone into a more impenetrable mystery than ever, and
the principals in this case, after committing atrocious crimes, after
baffling the police of different nations, seemed to have vanished
into the profoundest obscurity. But on this occasion he reiterated
that determination which he had made before of never losing sight of
this purpose, but keeping at it, if need were, for years. He would
write to the