CHAPTER XIX.

It was late in the afternoon when Mrs. Voss came out of the deep sleep into which the quieting draught administered by Doctor Hillhouse had thrown her.  She awoke from a dream so vivid that she believed it real.

“Oh, Archie, my precious boy!” she exclaimed, starting up and reaching out her hands, a glad light beaming on her countenance.

While her hands were still outstretched the light began to fade, and then died out as suddenly as when a curtain falls.  The boy who stood before her in such clear presence had vanished.  Her eyes swept about the room, but he was not there.  A deadly pallor on her face, a groan on her lips, she fell back shuddering upon the pillow from which she had risen.

Mr. Voss, who was sitting at the bedside, put his arm under her, and lifting her head, drew it against his breast, holding it there tightly, but not speaking.  He had no comfort to give, no assuring word to offer.  Not a ray of light had yet come in through the veil of mystery that hung so darkly over the fate of their absent boy.  Many minutes passed ere the silence was broken.  In that time the mother’s heart had grown calmer.  She was turning, in her weakness and despair, with religious trust, to the only One who was able to sustain her in this great and crushing sorrow.

“He is in God’s hands,” she said, in a low voice, lifting her head from her husband’s breast and looking into his face.

“And he will take care of him,” replied Mr. Voss, falling in with her thought.

“Yes, we must trust him.  He is present in every place.  He knows where Archie is, and how to shield and succor him.  O heavenly Father, protect our boy!  If in danger, help and save him.  And, O Father, give me strength to bear whatever may come.”

The mother closed her eyes and laid her head back upon her husband’s bosom.  The rigidity and distress went out of her face.  In this hour of darkness and distress, God, to whom she looked and prayed for strength, came very close to her, and in his nearer presence there is always comfort.

But as the day declined and the shadows off another dreary winter night began to draw their solemn curtains across the sky the mother’s heart failed again, and a wild storm of fear and anguish swept over it.  Neither policemen nor friends had been able to discover a trace of the missing young man, and advertisements were given out for the papers next morning offering a large reward for his restoration to his friends if living or for the recovery of his body if dead.

The true cause of Archie’s disappearance began to be feared by many of his friends.  It did not seem possible that he could have dropped so completely out of sight unless on the theory that he had lost his way in the storm and fallen into the river.  This suggestion as soon as it came to Mrs. Voss settled into a conviction.  Her imagination brooded over the idea and brought the reality before her mind with such a cruel vividness that she almost saw the tragedy enacted, and heard again that cry of “Mother!” which had seemed to mingle with the wild shrieks of the tempest, but which came only to her inner sense.