your horse will be hitched near here. When you hear us driving along the
road, in about ten or fifteen minutes, just you sing out."

Eleanor was grateful when Harry left her, and she could give way to her
real feelings. She was on a bed of moss and Harry had rolled up his
coat for a pillow to put under her head. But the pain in her shoulder
was excruciating. She could not get into any position where it seemed to
hurt less. Each time she moved a twinge caught her and she would have
liked to scream aloud. But Eleanor did not scream; she waited patiently,
though now and then the tears would rise in her eyes of their own accord
and trickle down her white cheeks. Madge was such a long time in coming
to find her. However, Harry did not know his way to the sulphur well. It
might take him some time to find it. How late it was getting! The sun
was low in the west.

After taking a last look at the spot where Eleanor lay, at her horse
hitched to a fence rail, at his own white handkerchief, which fluttered
from a low branch of a tree near the road, Harry rode furiously off. He
would surely find their friends in a few moments. But Harry continued to
ride in exactly the wrong direction. Every yard he covered took him
farther away from the sulphur springs. While he was galloping on his
wild-goose chase the party at the springs decided to return to the
Preston farm. They were too uneasy about Harry and Eleanor to have a
good time, and they concluded that they would either overtake the lost
couple on the way home or else find that the two young people had given
up and returned to the farm.

The three girls gave their horses free rein and cantered home with all
speed. Yet it was dark when they arrived. No word had been heard of
Eleanor or Harry. It was a cloudy evening and the sun had disappeared
quickly. Without waiting, except to give the alarm to Mr. Preston, the
entire riding party set out again. Madge thought that she would have
liked to ask David to help them, but there was no time to spare. The
riders met Mrs. Preston, Miss Jenny Ann and Miss Betsey, who had set out
for home in the phaeton. The three older women also refused to go back
to Prestons, until Eleanor and her companion were discovered.

In the meantime Harry Sears had finally reached the decision that he was
not on the right road to the sulphur well. At the end of a five-mile
gallop he turned his horse and cantered back. He passed Eleanor's horse,
tugging impatiently