Scales was dispatched to the Vaux ranch, and returned the next
morning by daybreak with the information that neither Quayle nor Cotton
had been seen on the Frio recently. A vaquero was sent to the Booth
ranch, who brought back the intelligence that neither of the missing
boys had been seen since they passed northward some two weeks before.
Father Norquin, as deeply affected as any one, returned to the Mission,
unable to offer a word of consolation. Several days passed without
tidings. As the days lengthened into a week, the master, as deeply
mortified over the incident as if the two had been his own sons, let
his suspicion fall on Quayle. And at last when light was thrown on the
mystery, the old ranchero's intuition proved correct.

My injured foot improved slowly, and before I was able to resume my
duties on the ranch, I rode over one day to the San Miguel for a short
visit. Tony Hunter had been down to Oakville a few days before my
arrival, and while there had met Clint Dansdale, who was well acquainted
with Quayle and Cotton. Clint, it appeared, had been in San Antonio and
met our missing men, and the three had spent a week in the city chumming
together. As Dansdale was also on horseback, the trio agreed to start
home the same time, traveling in company until their ways separated.
Cotton had told Dansdale what business had brought him to the city, and
received the latter's congratulations. The boys had decided to leave for
home on the ninth, and on the morning of the day set forth, moneyless
but rich in trinkets and toggery. But some where about forty miles south
of San Antonio they met a trail herd of cattle from the Aransas River.
Some trouble had occurred between the foreman and his men the day
before, and that morning several of the latter had taken French leave.
On meeting the travelers, the trail boss, being short-handed, had
offered all three of them a berth. Quayle had accepted without a
question. The other two had stayed all night with the herd, Dansdale
attempting to dissuade Cotton, and Quayle, on the other hand, persuading
him to go with the cattle. In the end Quayle's persuasions won. Dansdale
admitted that the opportunity appealed strongly to him, but he refused
the trail foreman's blandishments and returned to his ranch, while the
two Las Palomas lads accompanied the herd, neither one knowing or caring
where they were going.

When I returned home and reported this to my employer, he was visibly
affect