"I feel a conviction
that we shall yet recover her."
During this conversation they had been galloping rapidly toward the
scene of the catastrophe, and, absorbed in their thoughts, not
another word was spoken until they gained the first rise, from
which they had been accustomed to see the pleasant house of the
Mercers. An exclamation of rage and sorrow burst from them all, as
only a portion of the chimney and a charred post or two showed
where it had stood. The huts of the peons had also disappeared; the
young trees and shrubs round the house were scorched up and burned
by the heat to which they had been exposed, or had been broken off
from the spirit of wanton mischief.
With clinched teeth, and faces pale with rage and anxiety, the
party rode on past the site of the huts, scattered round which were
the bodies of several of the murdered peons. They halted not until
they drew rein, and leaped off in front of the house itself.
It had been built entirely of wood, and only the stumps of the
corner posts remained erect. The sun had so thoroughly dried the
boards of which it was constructed that it had burned like so much
tinder, and the quantity of ashes that remained was very small.
Here and there, however, were uneven heaps; and in perfect silence,
but with a sensation of overpowering dread, Mr.
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