he said. "When I told him that I hadn't, he seemed
mighty disturbed."

Muriel's heart throbbed painfully, but she waited for one of the others
to speak, and Jernyngham, laying down his paper, glanced up sharply.

"Why?" he asked.

This was all the encouragement Leslie needed.

"I'll tell you, so far as I've got the hang of the thing; I thought you'd
like to know. It seems Prescott has been away somewhere for a few days
and should have got home last night. He came in on the train in the
evening, and Harper drove him out and dropped him at Wandle's trail;
Prescott said he wanted to see the man. Well, he didn't get home, and
Svendsen, who'd been to Harper's this morning, found Wandle gone and
three of his horses missing. Then he found out from Watson, who stayed at
the hotel last night, that Curtis rode in on a played-out horse before it
was light, and kept the night operator busy for a while with the wires.
Seems to me the thing has a curious look."

For a moment or two nobody spoke. Muriel felt dismayed by the news, and
she glanced at the others, trying to read their thoughts. Colston looked
troubled, Gertrude's face was hard and stamped with a kind of cruel
satisfaction, Jernyngham was very grim.

"Is that all you know about the matter?" Jernyngham asked.

"I guess so," Leslie answered. "Still, Svendsen did allow he thought he'd
seen Stanton hanging about the homestead yesterday evening."

"Thank you," said Jernyngham with cold politeness. "I'll want the team
after dinner."

Seeing no excuse for remaining, the rancher went out, and Jernyngham
turned to the others. His brows were knitted and his eyes gleamed
ominously.

"There's no mystery about the matter; the man has gone for good," he
said. "In spite of the assurances they gave me, these fools of police
have let him slip through their fingers. That he saw Wandle before he
bolted proves collusion between them. It was a thing I half suspected,
but Curtis, of course, did not agree with me."

Muriel was recovering from the shock. Though things looked very bad, she
could not believe that Prescott had run away. He had promised to call on
Curtis and her confidence in him was unshaken.

"He went away by train a day or two ago, and if he had had anything to
fear, he would have made his escape then," she said.

Mrs. Colston cast a warning glance at her, as if begging her to say
nothing more, but Jernyngham curtly answered her remark.

"The man probably wanted