"Well!" said the gentleman, impatiently, "have you no tongue,
fellow? Where are they, I say?"
"Blessed if I know," said the watchman. "I, wasn't set here to
keep guard over them was I? It looks like it, though," said the
man in parenthesis; "for this makes twice to-night I've been
asked questions about it."
"Ah!" said the gentleman, with a slight start. "Who asked you
before, pray?"
"Two young gentlemen; lords, I expect, by their dress. Somebody
ran screaming out of the house, and they wanted to know what was
wrong."
"Well?" said the stranger, breathlessly, "and then?"
"And then, as I couldn't tell them they went in to see for
themselves, and shortly after came out with a body wrapped in a
sheet, which they put in a pest-cart going by, and had it buried,
I suppose, with the rest in the plague-pit."
The stranger fairly staggered back, and caught at a pillar near
for support. For nearly ten minutes, he stood perfectly
motionless, and then, without a word, started up and walked
rapidly away. The friends looked after him curiously till he was
out of eight.
"So she is not there," said Ormiston; "and our mysterious friend
in the cloak is as much at a loss as we are ourselves.
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