Dollie would run across;
it would be no trouble for her to do so, and there is just enough peril
to tempt her. Could she have fallen in?"

He looked at the dark water as it swept forward and shivered.

"Rivers and lakes and seas and streams are always thirsting for human
life, and this may have seized her."

Tramping through the undergrowth that lined the bank he fought his way
onward until he stood beside the rocks where the waters made a foaming
cascade, as they dashed downward toward the mills far away.

"If she did fall in, she must be somewhere near this spot----"

His heart seemed to stop beating. Surely that dark object, half
submerged and lying against the edge of the bank, where the water made
an eddy, must be her body. He ran thither and stooped down.

"Thank God," was his exclamation, after touching it with his hands, and
finding it a piece of dark wood that had been carried there from the
regions above.

Back he came to where the fallen tree spanned the creek, and hurried
across. No snow was falling, but the earth was white with the thin
coating that had filtered down hours before.

"Had it come earlier in the day," he thought, "it would help us to
trace her, but now it will hide her footprints."

Hardly a score of steps from the creek his foot struck something soft,
and he stooped down. Straightening up, he held a small hood in his
hand, such as children wear in cold weather. Faint as was the light,
he recognized it as Dollie's; he had seen her wear it many times.

"What can it mean?" he asked himself; "I must have stepped over or on
that on my way down, but did not notice it. Yes, Dollie is on this
side the stream, but where?"

Aye, that was the question. Once more he raised his voice and shouted
with might and main, but as before no answer came back.

Harvey was now master of himself. He had recovered from the shock that
at first almost took away his senses and he was able to think and act
with his usual coolness. But with this, the belief that Hugh and Tom
had something to do with the disappearance of Dollie grew until at
times he was without any doubt at all. Occasionally, however, he
wavered in his belief.

Thus it was that two theories offered themselves. The first was that
Dollie had set out to find him and had wandered up the mountain path to
some point above the bridge and then had strayed from it and become
lost. Worn out, she had laid down and was at that moment aslee