during the last six years.

"We publish these details, even at this late hour, in the faint hope
that some light may yet be thrown on the mystery which enshrouds the
fate of the gallant colonel and his family, or, at least, that they
may assist in discovering the whereabouts of his brother. Theories
have been put forward. But the suggestion which seems most feasible
comes from the New York police. They think he must have met with some
accident in the obscurer mountains, for he was a daring climber, and
that, unaccompanied as they were by any servants, his wife and
daughter, left helpless, were unable to get back to civilization.
There is a chance that misfortune of some other character overtook
him, but of what nature it is impossible to estimate. It has been
asserted by one of the officials at the railway station at Omaha that
a party alighted from a transcontinental train there answering the
description of Colonel Raynor's party. These people are supposed to
have stayed the night at a hotel, and then left by a train going
north. Inquiry, however, has thrown no further light in this
direction, and so the police have fallen back on their original
theory."

Seth laid the cutting aside, and thoughtfully chewed the end of his pen.
There were many things he had to think of, but, curiously enough, the
letter he had to compose did not present the chief item. Nor did Rosebud
even. He thought chiefly of that railway official, and the story which the
police had so easily set aside. He thought of that, and he thought of the
Indians, who now more than ever seemed to form part of his life.

Finally he took a fresh piece of paper and headed it differently. He had
changed his mind. He originally intended to write to the New York police.
Now he addressed himself to the Editor of the ----, London, England. And
his letter was just the sort of letter one might have expected from such a
man, direct, plain, but eminently exact.

As he finally sealed it in its envelope there was no satisfaction in the
expression of his face. He drew out his pipe and filled it and lit it, and
smoked with his teeth clenching hard on the mouthpiece. He sat and smoked
on long after Rube had looked in and bade him good-night, and Ma had come
in for a good-night kiss, and Rosebud had called out her nightly farewell.
It was not until the lamp burnt low and began to smell that he stole
silently up to his bed. But, whatever th