noon
In broad daylight , his young wife and infant son disappeared as suddenly and completely as if blotted out of existence . That morning , Eric light-heartedly kissed wife and child good-by and waved them a farewell that was to be the last . He rode down the winding forest path to Quebec and they stood where the Chateau garden merged into the forest of Charlesbourg Mountain . At noon , when he returned , for him there existed neither wife nor child . For any trace of them that could be found , both might have been supernaturally spirited away . The great house , that had re-echoed to the boy 's prattle , was deathly still ; and neither wife , nor child , answered his call . The nurse was summoned .