Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1909-04-29

walking in his sleep. Let us look
into every room which opens on to
the gallery"
Eyes, you're right, Miss Decies,"
Grant answered. Come, do not let
us waste moment"
He sprang up the stairs, followed by
the duchess, the old lady and the two
men detailed to attend on him by the
house steward, while Remington him
self began to organize search parties
among the remaining domestics below.
1t was now little after 10 o'clock,
and for half an hour Grant and his
companions went through the many
rooms opening on to the gallery
Three or four switches were turned
up, a flood of light Illuminated every
recess of the great picture room
where the Rembrandts and Mu-
rillos hung, and that was shown to be
utterly empty. A rabbit could not
have hidden in it. Several state bed
rooms in which princes and princesses
of the Georgian house had stayed took
longer to examine, but proved equally
void of all information
They came to Miss Decies' own
apartments, which were three en- suite
The little marble bathroom was gleam-
ing and empty A very short exami-
nation sufiiced to show that the big,
prim sitting ROOM with its Early Vic
torian furniture and all that style of
decoration which she had admired in
her youth and which the old lady still
chung to resolutely could not harbor
even the most mischevous little boy
tempted to play at hide-and-seek In
the bed room it was the same. 1t
was hardly worth while to open the
big mahogany wardrobes and presses,
to glance behind the hangings of the
vast four-poster bed.
Miss Decies had been in the sitting
room, which opened into the bed room,
for more than an hour, and it was
impossible that the child should have
hidden in or been conveyed to her
apartments.
And it was the same with all the
remaining rooms which opened on to
the gallery. The ball room. the yell
low room, the Louis Quatorze ante
room, the great crimson drawing
room, one and all, proved frutless to
their search.
At half past ten Grant the duchess
and Miss Decies, the various groups of
servants. and the houekeeper and
house steward met once more in the
great hail.
Now real terror blanched the faces
of every one; the excited voices of
half an hour ago were hushed. White
faces were turned In mute astonish-
ment to one another. Fear brooded
over all the splendor of the famous
vestibule of 1O0a, Piccadilly.
Your grace" Remington said in
a deep voice which trembled with
sorrow and excitement--"your grace,
every nook and corner Of the house
has been searched, and it is certain,
as far as human understanding can
say, that his grace has gone"
The duchess looked at the man for
a moment, swayed little, and then,
without a sound, sank back in dead
faint, being caught just before she
would have fallen upon the purple
floor by Grant and Miss Decies.
They carried her into the small blue
drawing room and laid her on couch,
where. within minute, smelling
salts and Eau-de- Cologne, which Miss
Decies produced with automatic sud
denness, revived her She came back
into the world of consciousness white
and shuddering, and the first person
on whom her eyes fell was Michael
Grant.
She was very quiet and restrained.
Michael" she said, "Fitzroy has
disappeared; there can be no doubt
of that. My boy has been taken away
How or why l do not know. Some
thing sinister and terrible has hap.
pened in this house. We must send
for his two guardians at once. Don't
you think so, Aunt Augusta?"
The best and wisest thing to do
my poor Beatrice" Miss Decies an.
swered, her hard old face much moved
and altered by the events of the last
hour,
Ito Be Continued