Round the house and grounds went the man, but no dog was to be found. Another mystery. Bannock was gone! They could not stay to search for him.

"He will turn up in the course of the day," Mr. Fairbairn said.

They all departed on their different ways. Aunt Charlotte and Dolly, too anxious to think of books, work, or lessons, could only sit, listening to every footstep, starting at the least sound, which might be news of their dear Harty.

The day wore on. The party from the wood returned, but they had found no trace. Harty was not there. That was certain. Captain Crowe came back from the seaport town, only nine miles away. He could give no information, though he had made the fullest inquiries, and left the notices agreed upon. Bannock had not been seen. Fresh cause for wonder.

"Could he have gone to look for Harty?" Dolly asked, wonderingly.

It was growing dusk, when a footstep was heard on the gravel, the gate swung to with a bang, and a familiar, piping voice was heard.

Anybody at home?"

"It is Peter Pranks," cried Dolly.

But she did not run to meet him, as she had been used to do with her brother. The pedlar came up the walk, he turned off to the side door, and was heard speaking to Jessie.

"Is anything the matter? Where are the children?

CHAPTER XI.

A DISCOVERY.

“I SHOULDN'T have come up here at all but for that," said Peter Pranks, in answer to the anxious questions which were poured out by the group formed around him. "It was the physic that was wanted badly, I knew, for the sick babies at Dame Morgan's, and an order or two besides, at the Low Farm, that I thought I would bring up at once, especially as I'd have to wait in Clumpton for some lace-work that was ordered to be made, and not quite finished. So this morning I went to the Farm, and then meant to have crossed over the bay, to go by the cliff path to Dame Morgan's cottage. But as one of the farm men was going by the road, and it was company, I went the longest way, and, one thing and another, I stayed about at the village till it was later than I thought; so I was forced to take the cliff path back to get to the Farm again, where I had left one of my packs. It was just half-way down the path, where the sun glinted, I should say, just about the last bit of earth

it lighted up, before sinking, that I spied this cap. It was a queer place to find a boy's cap, unless the boy was pretty close by, and I looked sharp about, thinking the owner might be in hiding to give me a start, as they will do. But I saw no signs of anybody, and then, as I turned the cap over, I was startled to see those lettersMaster Harty's name. Well, ma'am, putting one thing and another together, I thought the best thing I could do was to come on here and find out the rights of it."

"It was indeed, Peter," said Aunt Charlotte, in a low, sad tone; "it was quite right, thank you.”

"My leg has turned stiff lately," the pedlar went on. "I came on but slowly, else I should have been here before."

"Sit down, pray," said the lady. "You had better stay to-night; James can make a bed for you.”

"But, ma'am, about the young master? Surely he has come to no mischief!"

"We don't know, Pranks. We are all in the dark. It is all a mystery."

She ordered some refreshment to be set before the pedlar; then, with Dolly, she returned to the sitting-room, to ponder over this new discovery.

In the kitchen there were many surmises and fresh ideas put forth.

"It is just where the wood overhangs the cliff," said the pedlar, when they asked him where the cap had been found, "about half-way down the path."

"Suppose Master Harty had fallen over the cliff in the dark?" said Jessie.

"Then there would be his body on the beach," said James.

"But the tide might have risen and carried him away? surmised Jessie.

"The tide never comes as high as that, unless it is the neap tide," said Pranks, "and it is very low just now. Besides, no one could fall from the cliff there; it is the coast-guard station just above, and their wall comes right down along, far past there."

"You had better tell my mistress all that," said the thoughtful Jessie. "I know she had something dreadful came into her mind, when she saw that cap with the blood on; and poor Miss Dolly will be breaking her heart about it."

"I don't myself believe that we will ever see him again," said James gloomily.

"I wouldn't say that," observed Peter Pranks. "I have known many disappear in a strange sort of way, and turn up again years after."

"Ay, but they would be grown-up people, no doubt," returned old James; "but a lad like this-what could take him away?"

"But if anything had happened to him," said Jessie, we would surely find something of him, even if it was wild beasts."