The lady glanced at him quickly and searchingly, and then, seeming assured of the reporter's honesty, replied:
"I am looking for an old acquaintance of mine--one Major Axell."
"He is not in camp, ma'am," said Spidertracks. "He was at Rum Valley a few days ago, when our party was organized to come here."
"I was there yesterday," said the lady, looking greatly disappointed, "and was told he started for here a day or two before."
"Some mistake, ma'am, I assure you," replied Spidertracks. "I should have known of his arrival if he had come. I'm an old newspaper man, ma'am, and can't get out of the habit of getting the news."
The lady turned away, but seemed irresolute. The reporter followed her.
"If you will return to Rum Yalley, ma'am, I'll find the major for you, if he is hereabouts," said he. "You will be more comfortable there, and I will be more likely than you to find him."
The lady hesitated for a moment longer; then she drew from her pocket a diary, wrote a line or two on one of its leaves, tore it out and handed it to the reporter.
"I will accept your offer, and be very grateful for it, for I do not bear this mountain traveling very well. If you find him, give him this scrawl and tell him where I am--that will be sufficient."
"Trust me to find him, ma'am," replied Spidertracks. "And as the stage is just starting, and there won't be another for a week, allow me to see you into it. Any baggage?"
"Only a small hand-bag in the tent," said she.
They hurried off together, Spidertracks found the bag, and five minutes later was bowing and waving his old hat to the cloud of dust which the departing stage left behind it. But when even the dust itself had disappeared, he drew from his pocket the paper the fair passenger had given him.
"'Tain't sealed," said he, reasoning with himself, "so there can't be any secrets in it. Let's see--hello! 'Ernest is somewhere in this country; I wish to see you about _him_--and about nothing else.' Whew-w-w! What splendid material for a column, if there was only a live paper in this infernal country! Looking for that young scamp, eh? There _is_ something to her, and I'll help her if I can. Wonder if I'd recognize him if I saw him again? I _ought_ to, if he looks as much like his parents as he used to do. 'Twould do my soul good to make the poor woman smile once; but it's an outrageous shame there's no good daily paper here to work the whole thing up in. With the chase, and fighting, and murder that _may_ come of it, 'twould make the leading sensation for a week!"