neglected road meant----But what did it mean? What could it mean?
The lowered eyes of those around seemed to decline to express even a
conjecture.

My poor friend, so delicate, so tender, reeled in my arms. "In the
vat!" she reiterated again and again, as if her mind refused to take
in a fact so astounding and unaccountable.

"Yes, miss, and he might never have been discovered," volunteered a
voice at last, over my shoulder, "if a parcel of school-children
hadn't strayed into the mill this afternoon. It is a dreadful
lonesome spot, you see, and----"

"Hush!" I whispered; "hush!" and I pointed to her face, which at
these words had changed as if the breath of death had blown across
it; and winding my arms still closer about her, I endeavored to lead
her away.

But I did not know my room-mate. Pushing me gently aside, she turned
to a stalwart man near by, whose face seemed to invite confidence,
and said:

"Take me in and show me the vat."

He looked at her amazed; so did we.

"I must see it," she said, simply; and she herself took the first
step towards the mill.

There was no alternative but to follow. This we did in terror and