No one could imagine what had become of you.

One of the blacks who had been working your Maxim said they had not noticed your leaving them; and that, when they found you were not there, they supposed you had come to confer with me.

Then I sent for your man; but he, too, was missing.

We searched everywhere, but no signs of you, dead or alive, and no marks of blood were to be found.

So it seemed that the matter must remain a mystery.