“Yes, in a few minutes after he got here. I have his horse hidden some little distance from here.”
“There!” she announced gently, pointing to the bunk. “We can’t leave him there, Stacy. There is something to be done, and I just can’t bring myself to do it.”
Stacy, his eyes large and round, backed hurriedly from the shack.
“Come on out. I can’t talk in there any more,” he urged, and Elfreda joined him at once. “Let me think. I can’t do it, either. I can fight a bad man, or wild animals, but this—this I—I can’t. Why did they shoot him?”
“They said he was a horse thief, but I know better. He possessed information that they wanted. This fellow that you sent away found the man’s saddle, though I don’t know how he chanced to discover it. The horse he may have discovered also, but I hardly think so. If not, we can take the animal and try to find our way back to Silver Creek.”
“Yes. Let’s find the horse. We can send Ham White back to do what you said. Where is the horse?”
“We will go look for him, but we must proceed with caution,” said Elfreda. “Take your revolver and I will take mine. You fall in behind. I will lead because I know the way.”
Stacy did not appear to relish the mission at all, but he relished still less being left alone at the cabin, so he followed along obediently. Elfreda proceeded with great caution, watching the ground and the surrounding forest.
“Keep perfectly quiet,” she warned, as they neared the spot where the horse had been secreted. “Stay where you are,” added Elfreda in a whisper, then crept forward.
“This is spooky,” muttered the fat boy. “I don’t like what I can’t see.”
“Stacy!” There was alarm in Elfreda’s voice. “Come here!”
He did not move as rapidly as he might, but a few moments later was standing at her side, and Stacy blinked as his gaze followed the direction in which she pointed.
A handsome bay mare lay dead in the secluded spot. It was the horse that Sam Petersen had left in her charge.
“Shot! The brutes!” cried Elfreda. “They have shot her. Well, perhaps that is better. Mr. Petersen asked me to dispose of the animal or hide her. What a pity!”
“I call it a good riddance. Say, Elfreda, you don’t suppose any of that gang are hanging around here, do you?” questioned Stacy apprehensively.