Hardly knowing what he did, he went aboard and plied his questions right and left, hoping that she might have come through unobserved.

But she was not there, and it was half past ten o'clock.
Out into the drizzle he sallied once more, racked by a hundred doubts and misgivings.

Reproaching himself fiercely for a fool, a dolt, he posted himself at the approach to the dock and strained his eyes and ears for the first sight of Grace Vernon.

Other people went aboard, but an hour passed before he gave up all hope and distractedly made up his mind to institute a search for the missing girl.

He conjectured all manner of mishaps, even to the most dreadful of catastrophes.