Obtaining no reply to his knock, he opened the door and found that the room was empty. More than that, he discovered, to his surprise and alarm, that Sammy's bed was unruffled, so that Sammy himself must have slept elsewhere!

In silent consternation the father descended to his bedroom and said, "Mariar, Sammy's gone!"

"Dead!" exclaimed Mrs Twitter with a look of horror.

"No, no; not dead, but gone--gone out of the house. Did not sleep in it last night, apparently."

Poor Mrs Twitter sank into a chair and gazed at her husband with a stricken face.

Up to that date the family had prospered steadily, and, may we not add, deservedly; their children having been trained in the knowledge of G.o.d, their duties having been conscientiously discharged, their sympathies with suffering humanity encouraged, and their general principles carried into practical effect. The consequence was that they were a well-ordered and loving family. There are many such in our land-- families which are guided by the Spirit and the Word of G.o.d. The sudden disappearance, therefore, of the eldest son of the Twitter family was not an event to be taken lightly for he had never slept out of his own particular bed without the distinct knowledge of his father and mother since he was born, and his appearance at the breakfast-table had been hitherto as certain as the rising of the sun or the winding of the eight-day clock by his father every Sat.u.r.day night.

In addition to all this, Sammy was of an amiable disposition, and had been trustworthy, so that when he came to the years of discretion--which his father had fixed at fifteen--he was allowed a latch-key, as he had frequently to work at his employer's books till a lateish hour,-- sometimes eleven o'clock--after the family, including the domestic, had gone to rest.

"Now, Samuel," said Mrs Twitter, with a slight return of her wonted energy, "there can be only two explanations of this. Either the dear boy has met with an accident, or--"

"Well, Mariar, why do you pause?"

"Because it seems so absurd to think of, much more to talk of, his going wrong or running away! The first thing I've got to do, Samuel, is to go to the police-office, report the case, and hear what they have to advise."

"The very thing I was thinking of, Mariar; but don't it strike you it might be better that _I_ should go to the station?"

"No, Samuel, the station is near. I can do that, while you take a cab, go straight away to his office and find out at what hour he left. Now, go; we have not a moment to lose. Mary," (this was the next in order to Sammy), "will look after the children's breakfast. Make haste!"

Mr Twitter made haste--made it so fast that he made too much of it, over-shot the mark, and went down-stairs head foremost, saluting the front door with a rap that threw that of the postman entirely into the shade. But Twitter was a springy as well as an athletic man. He arose undamaged, made no remark to his more than astonished children, and went his way.

Mrs Twitter immediately followed her husband's example in a less violent and eccentric manner. The superintendent of police received her with that affable display of grave good-will which is a characteristic of the force. He listened with patient attention to the rather incoherent tale which she told with much agitation--unbosoming herself to this officer to a quite unnecessary extent as to private feelings and opinions, and, somehow, feeling as if he were a trusted and confidential friend though he was an absolute stranger--such is the wonderful influence of Power in self-possessed repose, over Weakness in distressful uncertainty!

Having heard all that the good lady had to say, with scarcely a word of interruption; having put a few pertinent and relevant questions and noted the replies, the superintendent advised Mrs Twitter to calm herself, for that it would soon be "all right;" to return home, and abide the issue of his exertions; to make herself as easy in the circ.u.mstances as possible, and, finally, sent her away with the first ray of comfort that had entered her heart since the news of Sammy's disappearance had burst upon her like a thunderclap.

"What a thing it is," she muttered to herself on her way home, "to put things into the hands of a _man_--one you can feel sure will do everything sensibly and well, and without fuss." The good lady meant no disparagement to her s.e.x by this--far from it; she referred to a manly man as compared with an unmanly one, and she thought, for one moment, rather disparagingly about the salute which her Samuel's bald pate had given to the door that morning. Probably she failed to think of the fussy manner in which she herself had a.s.saulted the superintendent of police, for it is said that people seldom see themselves!

But Mrs Twitter was by no means bitter in her thoughts, and her conscience twitted her a little for having perhaps done Samuel a slight injustice.

Indeed she _had_ done him injustice, for that estimable little man went about his inquiries after the lost Sammy with a lump as big as a walnut on the top of his head, and with a degree of persistent energy that might have made the superintendent himself envious.

"Not been at the office for two days, sir!" exclaimed Mr Twitter, repeating--in surprised indignation, for he could not believe it--the words of Sammy's employer, who was a merchant in the hardware line.

"No, sir," said the hardware man, whose face seemed as hard as his ware.

"Do--you--mean--to--tell--me," said Twitter, with deliberate solemnity, "that my son Samuel has not been in this office for _two days_?"

"That is precisely what I mean to tell you," returned the hardware man, "and I mean to tell you, moreover, that your son has been very irregular of late in his attendance, and that on more than one occasion he has come here drunk."

"Drunk!" repeated Twitter, almost in a shout.

"Yes, sir, drunk--intoxicated."

The hardware man seemed at that moment to Mr Twitter the hardest-ware man that ever confronted him. He stood for some moments aghast and speechless.

"Are you aware, sir," he said at last, in impressive tones, "that my son Samuel wears the blue ribbon?"

The hardware man inquired, with an expression of affected surprise, what that had to do with the question; and further, gave it as his opinion that a bit of blue ribbon was no better than a bit of red or green ribbon if it had not something better behind it.

This latter remark, although by no means meant to soothe, had the effect of reducing Mr Twitter to a condition of sudden humility.

"There, sir," said he, "I entirely agree with you, but I had believed-- indeed it seems to me almost impossible to believe otherwise--that my poor boy had religious principle behind his blue ribbon."

This was said in such a meek tone, and with such a woe-begone look as the conviction began to dawn that Sammy was not immaculate--that the hardware man began visibly to soften, and at last a confidential talk was established, in which was revealed such a series of irregularities on the part of the erring son, that the poor father's heart was crushed for the time, and, as it were, trodden in the dust. In his extremity, he looked up to G.o.d and found relief in rolling his care upon Him.

As he slowly recovered from the shock, Twitter's brain resumed its wonted activity.

"You have a number of clerks, I believe?" he suddenly asked the hardware man.

"Yes, I have--four of them."

"Would you object to taking me through your warehouse, as if to show it to me, and allow me to look at your clerks?"

"Certainly not. Come along."

On entering, they found one tying up a parcel, one writing busily, one reading a book, and one balancing a ruler on his nose. The latter, on being thus caught in the act, gave a short laugh, returned the ruler to its place, and quietly went on with his work. The reader of the book started, endeavoured to conceal the volume, in which effort he was unsuccessful, and became very red in the face as he resumed his pen.

The employer took no notice, and Mr Twitter looked very hard at the hardware in the distant end of the warehouse, just over the desk at which the clerks sat. He made a few undertoned remarks to the master, and then, crossing over to the desk, said:--

"Mr Dobbs, may I have the pleasure of a few minutes' conversation with you outside?"

"C-certainly, sir," replied Dobbs, rising with a redder face than ever, and putting on his hat.

"Will you be so good as to tell me, Mr Dobbs," said Twitter, in a quiet but very decided way when outside, "where my son Samuel Twitter spent last night?"

Twitter looked steadily in the clerk's eyes as he put this question. He was making a bold stroke for success as an amateur detective, and, as is frequently the result of bold strokes, he succeeded.

"Eh! your--your--son S-Samuel," stammered Dobbs, looking at Twitter's breast-pin, and then at the ground, while varying expressions of guilty shame and defiance flitted across his face.

He had a heavy, somewhat sulky face, with indecision of character stamped on it. Mr Twitter saw that and took advantage of the latter quality.

"My poor boy," he said, "don't attempt to deceive me. You are guilty, and you know it. Stay, don't speak yet. I have no wish to injure you.

On the contrary, I pray G.o.d to bless and save you; but what I want with you at this moment is to learn where my dear boy is. If you tell me, no further notice shall be taken of this matter, I a.s.sure you."

"Does--does--he know anything about this?" asked Dobbs, glancing in the direction of the warehouse of the hardware man.

"No, nothing of your having led Sammy astray, if that's what you mean,-- at least, not from me, and you may depend on it he shall hear nothing, if you only confide in me. Of course he may have his suspicions."

"Well, sir," said Dobbs, with a sigh of relief, "he's in my lodgings."

Having ascertained the address of the lodgings, the poor father called a cab and soon stood by the side of a bed on which his son Sammy lay sprawling in the helpless att.i.tude in which he had fallen down the night before, after a season of drunken riot. He was in a heavy sleep, with his still innocent-looking features tinged with the first blight of dissipation.

"Sammy," said the father, in a husky voice, as he shook him gently by the arm; but the poor boy made no answer--even a roughish shake failed to draw from him more than the grumbled desire, "let me alone."