The Vanishing of Tera

"He killed Zara--I am certain of it," answered Johnson, positively; "though for the present I grant you I have no proof. Now, let us see what is best to be done."

A week later Tera and Jack were married. Owing to all that had recently occurred there were few people at the wedding. Rachel was still nursing Herbert, who was slowly but surel...

Johnson made no further attempt to leave. He sat down again. He was too much taken aback to speak. Yet mechanically he repeated the words of Miss Arnott, as if the more clearly...

The unfortunate Mr. Johnson was so dazed by the many accusations that were made against him, that this last astonished him scarcely so much as it should have done. He stared at...

It was Pharaoh Lee--the very man in search of whom the police were scouring the country. So astonished was Tera at his unexpected appearance, that she could only stare at him in...

There are policemen who in their own eyes are wholly estimable. In Grimleigh dwelt such a one. He was a lean, solemn, taciturn being, with red hair and moustache, a freckled fac...

Tera and her guardian walked home in silence, Johnson, whose love for the girl bordered on a frenzy, could not, as yet, trust himself to remark on her conduct in meeting Finland...

Ill news travels fast. Slade and his wife brought the tragic tidings to Grimleigh that night, and by morning the whole town was in possession of a distorted version of the facts...

In a surprisingly short space of time the news was in every mouth. It drew the idlers of Grimleigh hot-footed to the half-reaped meadow where the corpse still lay amongst the st...

The two men looked at the ear-ring, Slade with triumph, Johnson with dismay. There was no doubt it belonged to Miss Arnott. He had frequently seen her wearing it; and he asked h...

The farmhouse of Mr. Carwell was a substantial brick building, surrounded by barns and yards, and flanked by five or six hayricks, the whole being girdled by elm-trees. Their fo...

Tera's funeral was a function of importance. Well-nigh the entire population of Grimleigh crowded into the little cemetery above the town. Some of them were drawn there in true...

Grimleigh hummed like a hive in the swarming season. Through Slade, via his tattling wife, the news of Finland's arrest was spread with the rapidity of influenza. As usual, rumo...

Slade was present at the inquest. He was deeply interested in the proceedings, and every now and then he might have been seen to smile in a saturnine way. For his own purposes h...

When Tera made the astounding statement that she it was who had killed Zara poor Rachel laughed incredulously. She thought the girl was joking, and she felt she could in nowise...

While these things were taking place in Mr. Johnson's study, Tera, with Tolai in attendance, returned to Farmer Carwell's. As she had promised her guardian to accept his stateme...

Assuredly, the congregation had no reason to complain that the anticipated sensation was not forthcoming. There was an agitated rustle through the chapel. Every one looked eager...

The little town of Grimleigh opened full on to the Channel. Its extension had of necessity been lateral, by reason of the hills which in the rear rose so precipitously as to be...

When Jack Finland came, in answer to Johnson's invitation, he little knew the kind of reception that awaited him. He entered the study with an alert step, but the merry expressi...

When Farmer Carwell came home to supper, he found the house in wild commotion. On hearing Tera's intelligence and proving the truth of it, Rachel fainted away, and had recovered...

"Mean?" interposed the accused. "Well, I guess he means that I'm here to answer to the charge of murdering a girl who's not dead. This is Tera--the young lady herself, your wors...

Originally Korah Brand had been a sailor--careless of religion, and content to live for the day without taking thought of the morrow. Born in England, trained as a weaver, he ha...

The company gathered under Farmer Carwell's hospitable roof were naturally amazed at the unexpected appearance of Tera's countryman. Jack, who, of course, had been in Koiau, rec...

"I come from Eden," cried the preacher; "even from the Island of Koiau, which floats as a green leaf upon the untroubled sea. There reigneth eternal summer, but there reigneth n...