All the evening Melbury had been coming to his door, saying, "I wonder
where in the world that girl is! Never in all my born days did I know
her bide out like this! She surely said she was going into the garden
to get some parsley."
Melbury searched the garden, the parsley-bed, and the orchard, but
could find no trace of her, and then he made inquiries at the cottages
of such of his workmen as had not gone to bed, avoiding Tangs's because
he knew the young people were to rise early to leave. In these
inquiries one of the men's wives somewhat incautiously let out the fact
that she had heard a scream in the wood, though from which direction
she could not say.
This set Melbury's fears on end. He told the men to light lanterns,
and headed by himself they started, Creedle following at the last
moment with quite a burden of grapnels and ropes, which he could not be
persuaded to leave behind, and the company being joined by the
hollow-turner and the man who kept the cider-house as they went along.
They explored the precincts of the village, and in a short time lighted
upon the man-trap. Its discovery simply added an item of fact without
helping their conjectures; but Melbury's indefinite alarm was greatly
increased when, holding a candle to the ground, he saw in the teeth of
the instrument some frayings from Grace's clothing. No intelligence of
any kind was gained till they met a woodman of Delborough, who said
that he had seen a lady answering to the description her father gave of
Grace, walking through the wood on a gentleman's arm in the direction
of Sherton.
"Was he clutching her tight?" said Melbury.
"Well--rather," said the man.
"Did she walk lame?"
"Well, 'tis true her head hung over towards him a bit."
Creedle groaned tragically.
Melbury, not suspecting the presence of Fitzpiers, coupled this account
with the man-trap and the scream; he could not understand what it all
meant; but the sinister event of the trap made him follow on.
Accordingly, they bore away towards the town, shouting as they went,
and in due course emerged upon the highway.
Nearing Sherton-Abbas, the previous information was confirmed by other
strollers, though the gentleman's supporting arm had disappeared from
these later accounts. At last they were so near Sherton that Melbury
informed his faithful followers that he did not wish to drag them
farther at so late an hour, since he could go on alone and inquire if
the woman who had been seen were really Grace. But they would not
leave him alone in his anxiety, and trudged onward till the lamplight
from the town began to illuminate their fronts. At the entrance to the
High Street they got fresh scent of the pursued, but coupled with the
new condition that the lady in the costume described had been going up
the street alone.