Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-05-31
companion laughed.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE SEARCH.

where's JESSE" asked Martin Kill
rain of his sister when they had sat
down to dinner without the girl.
Agnes shrugged her shoulders.
"Gaddin'," she said sen~tentiously.
ITS we'll for you, Martin. hat my feet
don't itch"
He asked the same question in a
different lone when he came in for
his supper.
81 wonder" said his sister, has she
took up again with the Cardross gal?'
"l)oeS you mean she amt in? That
she amt been in?" Kilrain demanded.
Good God, Agnes, s'pose somethin'
happened to herr
He ate his supper in haste. Their he
went out to Bucks cabin.
He found Buck playing OF his con-
c%ertina. The young fellow sprang up
so suddenly at the sight of kilrain's
grave face that the rawhide chair he
threw the concertina Upon the bed.
whats it?' he asked tersely.
Its Jess. She's nlissin'. Since
early mornin'."
Ten minutes later, with Perry Green,
they were in their saddles. Jess had
pastures in the morning, so they
turned that way. Beyond that their
direction was blind.
Their fear was the river.
1t still ran high enough to be a source
of danger by way of the fords, and
Buck remembered shudderingly that
landslide by which once before Jess
had been in peril. So they pushed on
ward toward the woods until they
reached the river.
There the futility of their search
came home to them. The night was
only starlit-the forests We're dark.
From it's banks the river could be seen
oorn11r az ON Nh3nntlacc void Vat thnu
went on, riding at haphazard toward
the north and scanning the bank close
ly for any evidence of a fresh crum-
bling. After slow progress they came
to the upper ford by which Jess had
crossed some hours earlier on her way
to the s1nithy.
They could conceive of no reason for
Jess crossing the river, yet, examin-
ing the soft ground at the mouth of
the ford, they saw the imprint of hoofs
the imprints of more than one horse.
Puzzled, the three mel looked at one
another in the Pickering light of their
matches.
"There want none Of us his way
today said Buck, a certain relief in
his voice, for his dread had been terri
BILE. and he welcomed any surcease
from that. she must "a gone over"
With who? asked kilraill.
Perry Green was down again on his
~ loNS1ASS wv lIlS
tracks.
With no one he said after a mo-
ment. "Afore or behind some one. Be-
hind, for here's a small hoof in a big
ger one"
Still" said Kilrain, she might "a
been just behind" Buck, too, had been
studying the imprints.
"Them's Busters hoofs. Kilrain,' he
declared with assurance I'm goin'
over. Don't you two come till l call"
He mounted N took the ford. He
breathed more easily when he found
that, though swift, the current was not
ugly-that only for a few strokes did
his horse have to swim.
In going ashore he drew the horse
we'll to one side, that he might not
trample the middle ground. Examin-
ing this, his relief was again great to
find the footprints the same as on the
opposite shore.
If some of them were those of Jess
pony, and he was sure they were, for
the animal, given to Jess by Worthing,
was of superior breed and had clean,
fine hoofs, then Jess had made the ford
in safety, unless in going back over
another
He dashed that thought from his
mind. At least now they had some clue.
Fortune had favored them thus much.
He called softly TO the others. In
stinctively now he used caution. Those
other hOof marks were to be accounted
for.
They tried to account for them, lin
gering over them as they talked, for
again they knew not which a to
turn. Strangely enough they did not
think Of Grange-did not think clearly
OF anything the signs might portend,
though uneasiness was on them