fire was still burning, and some plates were lying on the grass.  Having sent off Washington and the two men to scour the district, he ran home, and despatched telegrams to all the police inspectors in the county, telling them to look out for a little girl who had been kidnapped by tramps or gipsies.  He then ordered his horse to be brought round, and, after insisting on his wife and the three boys sitting down to dinner, rode off down the Ascot road with a groom.  He had hardly, however, gone a couple of miles, when he heard somebody galloping after him, and, looking round, saw the little Duke coming up on his pony, with his face very flushed, and no hat.  “I’m awfully sorry, Mr. Otis,” gasped out the boy, “but I can’t eat any dinner as long as Virginia is lost.  Please don’t be angry with me; if you had let us be engaged last year, there would never have been all this trouble.  You won’t send me back, will you?  I can’t go!  I won’t go!”

[Illustration:  “He heard somebody galloping after him”]

The Minister could not help smiling at the handsome young scapegrace, and was a good deal touched at his devotion to Virginia, so leaning down from his horse, he patted him kindly on the shoulders, and said, “Well, Cecil, if you won’t go back, I suppose you must come with me, but I must get you a hat at Ascot.”

“Oh, bother my hat!  I want Virginia!” cried the little Duke, laughing, and they galloped on to the railway station.  There Mr. Otis inquired of the station-master if any one answering to the description of Virginia had been seen on the platform, but could get no news of her.  The station-master, however, wired up and down the line, and assured him that a strict watch would be kept for her, and, after having bought a hat for the little Duke from a linen-draper, who was just putting up his shutters, Mr. Otis rode off to Bexley, a village about four miles away, which he was told was a well-known haunt of the gipsies, as there was a large common next to it.  Here they roused up the rural policeman, but could get no information from him, and, after riding all over the common, they turned their horses’ heads homewards, and reached the Chase about eleven o’clock, dead-tired and almost heart-broken.  They found Washington and the twins waiting for them at the gate-house with lanterns, as the avenue was very dark.  Not the slightest trace of Virginia had been discovered.  The gipsies had been caught on Brockley meadows, but she was not with them, and they had explained their sudden departure by saying that they had mistaken the date of Chorton Fair, and had gone off in a hurry for fear they should be late.  Indeed, they had been quite distressed at hearing of Virginia’s disappearance, as they were very grateful to Mr. Otis for having allowed them to camp in his park, and four of their number had stayed behind to help in the search.  The carp-pond had been dragged, and the whole Chase