ace
of her. Dividing into bands, they scoured the country roundabout, being
assisted by the cow-punchers and the ranchers in the neighborhood.

But Stella had disappeared as if the earth had opened and swallowed her.
With all his ingenuity, backed by the strong desire he had to find her,
Ted was making no headway, and he hardly slept or ate during the long
days and nights, but was in the saddle almost continuously.

Naturally, he suspected Shan Rhue of knowing something about Stella's
absence, if, indeed, he was not actually responsible for it.

But he could not fasten anything on the man whom he had come to regard
as his greatest enemy, and whom he knew hated him. Whenever he sought
Shan Rhue, he was always to be found at his haunts.

Tired of the inaction, Ted met Shan Rhue on the street one day, and
resolved to have it out with him.

"Shan Rhue, I want to speak with you," said Ted, stopping him.

"Well, what is it you want?" asked Shan Rhue.

"I want you to tell me where Stella is," said Ted.

Shan Rhue stared at him in apparent amazement.

"How should I know where she is?" asked Shan Rhue, with a wicked
twinkling in his eye.

"I don't know," answered Ted; "but I think you do know."

"So I supposed, from the way in which you have had me followed. I
suppose you miss her a good deal."

"Her aunt, Mrs. Graham, is distraught with grief and anxiety. Surely you
have no fight on her, or on Miss Fosdick, either, that you should keep
them apart."

"No. I have no fight with a woman. But why should I know where the young
lady is?"

"There are several reasons why you should have had her taken away. But I
think the principal reason is that you think you can get square with me
by doing so."

"There might be something in that. Mind me, I am not confessing that I
took her away, or that I know who did take her away, or where she is.
You have seen me in town every day since the little trouble we had over
that old thief Norris, haven't you?"

"Yes, but that tells me nothing. It might not be necessary for you to
leave this town to have her hidden somewhere."

"But you and your friends searched the town from one end to the other,
and you did not find her."

"True, but for all that I am satisfied that you know where she is.
Suppose we call it off, and that you tell me where she is."

"If I knew, I would not tell you," said Shan Rhue, his voice intense
with hatred.

"What do you mean? Are you such a coward that yo