CHAPTER XXXIX.

HIDING.

THE time seemed to her rather long before she saw Otto's thin face coming back through the doorway.

He was closely followed by Daisy and Hugh, and came up to her at once, surprise in his tone as he inquired—

"Where is Randall? Is he not with you?"

"With me?" echoed Gertrude, starting up. "No, he has not been with me at all. He went off with you, Otto."

"He was with me, but he asked if he might find you. And I brought him to the doorway and pointed you out, and left him. How very strange!"

"I did not see either of you," said Gertrude, looking alarmed.

"No—you were deeply meditating, and did not look up. Do not worry yourself, he'll be all right. Boys don't get run off with every—" He stopped short. He had touched too near home to their recent sorrow about Lester, to bear it yet.

"At any rate," he added hastily, "he will be all safe. We must go and look for him."

They quickly arranged a meeting-place, and Gertrude took Daisy with her, while Hugh volunteered to go with Mr. Leigh.

But they wandered through the rooms, one after another, searching in every part fruitlessly, till they were utterly weary and footsore.

Again and again they met, only to acknowledge that their search had been in vain.

At length it grew dusk, and the Museum began to thin. People were leaving for their homes before the fresh accession would come in with the lights.

Gertrude was worn out. She felt as if her feet would not carry her another step.

"Did you ever know of his doing such a thing before?" she asked Daisy, as she sank on to a seat for an instant.

"No—never," said poor Daisy, who could hardly keep back her tears. "He said this morning, 'I'm going to have a lark to-day, Daisy,' but I thought he meant coming to the Museum."

"He meant to play us a trick," said Hugh decidedly; "at least I think so—he did say—don't you remember, Daisy?—that he would do something that really would tease Miss Ashlyn."

Gertrude felt herself get hot from head to foot.

"How can we go home and tell your mother?" she said piteously. "It is too dreadful. Otto, you have asked all the men at the doors to keep any little boy—"

"Certainly I have. Not one has noticed such a child pass."

"It makes it worse to think he could have been so cruel as to play such a trick," said Gertrude. "We must stay here, Otto, till the place shuts, and you must go home and tell Mrs. Shaddock. It is too dreadful—"

"Come, do not give up," said Otto cheerily, though he little liked the errand on which he was sent. "If Randall has done it for a trick, he will probably turn up all right. Anyway fretting will not mend it. He has had his wish and spoilt our day!"

He left them regretfully, and made his way with all speed to Hampstead.

It was, however, nearly an hour before he reached the Shaddocks' comfortable home.

To picture the dismay which spread through the house at his story would be impossible. Mrs. Shaddock gave up her darling for lost. And Mr. Shaddock, between indignation and real apprehension, hardly knew what he was doing.

He set off at once with Otto, feeling as if trains were a slow mode of travelling, when the heart had reached the end of the journey before the whistle had more than sounded!

Hurriedly they retraced their steps through the warm and crowded rooms, till they reached the one where Otto had left Gertrude.

There, in front of the anxious father's eyes, sat the group he had come to seek, Randall in the middle of them looking flushed and sullen, the rest white and weary.

"You have found him?" asked Mr. Shaddock.

"Where? How?"

Gertrude looked up, her eyes tearful, her lips trembling.

"We cannot well explain it here," she said in a low voice. "He came to us of his own accord. I believe he is beginning to be sorry."

"Beginning to be sorry?" echoed Mr. Shaddock.

"What can you mean?"

He took Randall's hand in his, and turned towards the door.

"How is this, my boy?"

"They left me alone—I got lost," said Randall, whimpering.

Hugh had joined his father on the other side, and heard the last words.

"Father!" he began urgently.

"Hush—I will hear all about it at home."

Mr. Shaddock hurried them into the train, Gertrude and Otto following.

"He thinks we carelessly let him get lost," said Gertrude. "What shall we do?"

"Stick to the truth," said Otto. "How did you find him, Gertrude, after all?"

"He was hiding somewhere," said Gertrude in a low voice. "Just before the place was lighted up, not long after you had gone, he sauntered up with his hands in his pockets and asked how we were getting on."

"What did you do?" asked Otto, almost too astonished to speak.

"I asked him where he had been, and told him what a fright he had given us all, and was just bidding him to sit down by me, when he gave a strange little glance at Hugh—gone in a moment—and then sat down by me, pushing his hand away from mine. Then I guessed that it was a trick."

"Shameful!" said Otto indignantly.

"It breaks my heart that he could—" said poor Gertrude.

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