The passage across the Atlantic was an unusually long one, owing to unfavorable winds and storms, and he was nearly sick with the delay and his patience exhausted, when at last the vessel touched her pier, and he sprang ashore like a restless bird escaped from its cage. Two hours later he stood on the steps of Mr. Dalton’s residence, his heart beating with a strange, unaccountable fear of something wrong, though he knew not what. A servant answered his impatient ring, and to his eager inquiry, “Is Miss Dalton at home?” returned a surprised “No, sir.” He then inquired for Mr. Dalton, and the reply suddenly stilled his rapid heart-beats and drove every shade of color from his face and lips. “No, sir, Mr. Dalton is not at home; he has been searching for Miss Dalton ever since her strange disappearance,” the man said. “_Strange disappearance!_ Man! what do you mean?” gasped Earle, actually staggering beneath the unexpected blow. The servant, pitying his distress, asked him to come in, saying he would tell him all about the affair. He mechanically obeyed, and his heart nearly died within him as he listened to the strange account of her sudden disappearance and protracted absence. Nothing had been heard of her during all that time beyond what has already been related in a previous chapter, although every one reasoned, from the account which the policeman gave of her encounter with the ruffian on her return from John Loker’s house, that _he_ must have had something to do with it, since she seemed to possess something that he was bound to have, and she as determined not to relinquish. The detectives employed to unravel the mystery could learn nothing; they were baffled at every point. They would seem to gain a clew to her whereabouts, and then would suddenly lose it again. Her fate remained a dark and perplexing mystery, and seemed likely to remain so indefinitely, and it had created a great deal of excitement, not only in her own city but all over the State. At first Earle inclined to think that Mr. Dalton himself was criminally concerned in the affair, remembering as he did his excessive anger upon discovering that Editha had promised to be his wife, and also his insulting language, sneers, and sarcasm both to her and him the day before his departure for Europe. But after he had seen and conversed with Mr. Felton, Editha’s lawyer, he changed his mind upon this point. Mr. Felton asserted that Mr. Dalton was now traveling in search of her, and had been unwearied in his efforts to find her ever since her disappearance. He privately informed him also that his business affairs were inextricably involved, and that for a long time he had been dependent upon Editha’s income, which she had freely and generously shared with him.