The Keepers of the People

777“I do not expect sympathy from you! Your heart is not with us! But if they think to shake me from my purpose, they will find themselves mistaken! I will be firm however they strike at me!” cried Lady Hammersmith.

778“Was Alrasch with her?” said Lord Lisdor.

779“I suppose so; he’s not in his stable. But what could a dog do against these malignant satyrs?” said Lady Hammersmith.

780“I think it’s far more likely that Althea has run away. She was very unhappy at home,” said Lady Lisdor.

781“Well, with Alrasch with her I don’t think she will come to much harm; but all the same, I’m off to Scotland Yard. Come along, Amelia!” said Lord Lisdor.

782Lady Hammersmith, still tearful, went with him.

783Once more the police were set seeking Althea. They began their search with little vigour, mindful of the needless trouble they had taken a few weeks before. But soon it became plain to them that this time she was lost indeed; for the night and the next day passed, and they had come upon no trace of her or of the dog. In the morning papers a large reward was offered for information, in the evening papers a larger; but no information came. The police scouted Lady Hammersmith’s theory, and were of the opinion that Althea, on the day of Ralph Falcon’s sailing, had gone straight from home down to the docks with Alrasch, and that some dog-thieves had seized the two of them, and were keeping the child a prisoner till they had sold the dog. But when three days passed, and the reward had been doubled with no result, they grew very grave; and the Scotland Yard Inspector in charge of the case said to Lord Lisdor, “If we don’t find the child in five days I doubt whether we ever shall.”

784Lady Hammersmith found herself the happy centre of all interest; her friends embraced with ardour her belief that Althea had been kidnapped by the enemies of the Causes; there was a fine recrudescence of the languishing Penalisation of Vice party; and her words gained a new weight, as falling from the lips of an undaunted martyr. The police and the Tory Government were accused by the Morning Moralist of being in league with the reputed abductors; and in the natural elation of her triumphant notoriety, and in the press of letter-writing brought upon her by it, Lady Hammersmith almost forgot Althea save for rhetorical purposes.