He had slept badly during the early part of the night, and was greatly annoyed at being roused from a doze at six o’clock. “If it’s Miss Blow you’re after,” he went on, “I haven’t got her here. She’s at the hotel. Go there and get her. Take her with you, if you want her. She’s no use to me.” Constable Moriarty grinned. He did not want Miss Blow any more than his officer did. Then, in the very middle of his grin, he grew grave again. “It’s what Sergeant Farrelly is after sending me over to tell you, sir, that the two English gentlemen that went off to Pool-a-donagh on their bicycles is after getting lost.” “Lost! What do you mean by lost?” “According to the word that came to the barrack at Clonmore, sir, the ladies arrived at Pool-a-donagh at four o’clock or thereabouts and didn’t find the gentlemen. It was thought that maybe they’d taken a wrong turn, though it’s hard to know how they could, seeing there isn’t a wrong turn to take, and that they might have come back to Clonmore. So the sergeant at Pool-a-donagh sent a wire to Sergeant Farrelly; but he didn’t know where they were, and no more did Jimmy O’Loughlin, for we asked him. We sent a few more wires to the barracks round about, but we got no tidings of them good nor bad. There was men out searching all night from Pool-a-donagh, and Constable Cole and the sergeant took a look round when they were on patrol. They do say the ladies was in a terrible state. There was a mounted man came into Clonmore between three and four this morning, and Sergeant Farrelly sent me over to you on a bicycle the way you’d be able to tell him what he’d better do.” “I never heard of such a thing in my life,” said Mr. Goddard. “How can they be lost? The thing is impossible. Hang it all! they must be somewhere.” “So you’d say, sir. But there isn’t a police station anywhere round but it’s been wired to, and not one has seen the gentlemen, dead or alive.” “Don’t talk about their being dead,” said Mr. Goddard. “Good heavens, man! They’re Members of Parliament. If they’ve gone and committed suicide there’ll be a most frightful row, and everybody will say it’s the fault of the police. They must be found at once.”