to put upon that the r letter try and sleep i shall see you in the morning sleep echoed the poor girl in a tone of anguish i feel as though i should never sleep again when they had driven away himself took the nearest way to the it was some way from the station but was a vigorous and soon covered the distance he arrived at the door with a beating heart and dry lips feeling he knew not why that he was about to hear bad news the butler ushered him into his master s presence and immediately the young man felt that his fears were confirmed looked worried he was a plump little man neat in his dress and cheerful in manner he was a bachelor and somewhat of a had known him all his life and could have found no better adviser in the in which he now found himself came forward with outstretched hands my dear boy i am indeed glad what good fairy sent you here a glass of port you look pale i am delighted to see you if you had not come i should have had to send for you what do you wish to see me about sir asked another surprise about the disappearance of these two people what two people asked the young man suddenly alert you forget that i have been away from for the last three days of course of course well one is brown the stranger who stayed with mrs marry the quiet gentleman yes i heard them call him so in the village a very doubtful character he never came to church said the sadly however it seems he has disappeared two nights ago � in fact upon the evening of the day upon which poor s funeral took place he left his lodgings for a walk since then added the he has not returned in plain words he has taken french leave filling his glass oh i should not say that he paid his weekly account the day before he vanished he left his baggage behind him no i don t think he intended to run away mrs marry says he was a good although she knew very little about him however he has gone and his box remains no one saw him after he left the village about eight o clock he was last seen by hale passing the church in the direction of the to day we searched the but could find no trace of him so the mystery most mysterious finished the and took some port who is the other man asked abruptly ah now you must be prepared for a shock dr bounded out of his seat is he lost too strangely enough he is answered gravely on the night of the funeral he went out at nine o clock in the evening to see a patient he never came back who was the patient � that is the strangest part of it brown the qui t gentleman was the patient mrs who as you may guess is quite distracted says that her husband told her so mrs marry declares that the doctor called after nine and found brown was absent what happened then demanded who had been listening eagerly to this tale dr according to mrs marry asked in what direction her had gone she could not tell him so saying he would call again in an hour or so he went and of course he never returned did brown send for him mrs marry could not say certainly no message was sent through her was brown ill another surprise si not at all according to his landlady we have been searching for both brown and but have found no traces of either said after a pause i wonder if they met and went away together my dear lad where would they go to objected the i don t know i can t say the whole business is most mysterious stopped and looked sharply at mr have you the key of the vault in your possession yes of course locked in my safe your question is most extraordinary the other smiled grimly my explanation is more extraordinary still he took out mr s letter and handed it to the what do you think of that sir most elegant said the good man why bless me he read on hurriedly and finally dropped the letter with a bewildered air bless me he stammered what � what � what picked it up and smoothed it out on the table you see this man says the body has been stolen do you know if the door of the vault has been broken open no no certainly not cried the rising come to my study we the mystery must see if it is all right it must be he added emphatically the key of the safe is on my watch chain no one can open it oh dear bless me he out of the room followed by a search into the interior of the safe resulted in the production of the key you see cried waving it triumphantly it is safe the door could not have been opened with this now your key my key is in my desk at the abbey farm � locked up also said the young man hastily i ll see about it to night in the meantime sir bring that key with you and we will go into the vault what for demanded the sharply why should we go there can t you understand said impatiently i want to find out if this letter is true or false � if the body of mr has been removed but i � i � can t gasped the i must apply to the bishop for nonsense sir we are not going to the body it s not like digging up a grave all that is necessary is to look at the 