"Wal, pards, by that time I must have been a mile from here and it looked as if I'd have to go that much further. I had a good mind to come back after you, for time was important, but when another rocky, walled-up place showed in front of me, I was sartin I was close upon 'em. Their horses couldn't make their way through such a spot, and I was sure I had 'em fast."
"Why didn't you come back at once?" said the captain, "but, never mind, go on with your account."
"I thought it would be best to find out just how they was fixed. At the same time, it would never do to let 'em diskiver that I was about. So I was powerful careful and crept forward as if into an Injin camp. It wasn't long before I smelled burning wood. That told me they had come to a stop, built a fire and didn't dream I was anywhere in the neighborhood.
"But I wasn't through with the bother yet; it took me another long time to find where that fire was burnin', but I hit it at last. A little faint streak of smoke was climbin' from behind a ridge, among a growth of pines. I begun creeping forward when I changed my mind. I thought that if one of 'em happened to be on the watch and see me, they would be off afore I could git anywhere near 'em. So I worked round to the other side to come upon 'em from that. Then you see if they took the alarm, they'd have to come back toward you or make another long circuit. Anyway, I was sure of a chance to meet 'em.
"Wal, pards, I don't want to make a long story of what is a short one. I got round to tother side, but it took me a good while, and it's hardly an hour ago that I catched my first sight of their camp."
"What passed between you and them?" asked the captain.
"When I rested my eyes on the little bundle of wood burnin', there wasn't a man, woman or horse in sight."
The listeners were dumbfounded for the moment. After the waste of the greater part of the day, they were no nearer seeing the fugitives than before. In a voice, husky with passion, Captain Dawson exclaimed:
"It will take hard work to convince me that all this was not done on purpose by you."
"What do you mean?" demanded Vose, showing more anger than at any time since the strange hunt had been begun.
"If you had spent a week trying to fix things so as to help them get away from us, you couldn't have done any better than your own account shows you to have done. The whole day has been lost and we stand just as near success as we did twenty-four hours ago."