r than we and Nero. Let's be off!"

The door was drawn inward, and Jack Hansell was left alone. He lit his
pipe, smoked it out, refilled it and was in the act of refilling it,
when Harvey Bradley came in--as has been made known in another place.
While the man sat smoking and alone in the cabin, he fell to brooding
over the troubles at the mills. Thus it came to pass that his feelings
were so bitter at the time the superintendent entered that he kept back
every hint that the absent men were engaged in the most "honest"
business in the world--that is, they were looking for the missing child.

Meanwhile Hugh and Tom went at the task not only with zeal, but with a
sagacity that gave promise of good results. As Hugh had said, they
knew every foot of the mountains for miles, they were free from the
flurry that at first ran away with the judgment of the superintendent,
and they were used to prowling through the woods. Still further Nero
had been trained to follow the faintest footprints.

"Now, Tom," said the leader, when they had walked a short ways, "we
can't do anything till we get on the trail of the little one."

"What do you think has become of her?"

"She's somewhere in the woods asleep or dead, with the chances about
even for either."

"Jack says she was seen coming up the mountain path early this
afternoon."

"Well, she has kept to it till she has either slipped out of the path
without knowing it or she has done it on purpose. She has strolled
along until it became dark or she was tired. Then she has lain down on
the leaves and gone to sleep. Nero, find the trail of the little girl."

"But," said Tom, "the night is so cold."

"So it is, but if the girl went out to play she was well clad, and, if
she knew enough, she has crept under the lee of a rock or into the
bushes, where the wind can't reach her. If she did the same, she
hasn't frozen to death."

"But there are wild animals in these parts."

"I know that, and she would make a meal that any of them would be glad
to get; we can only hope they didn't find her."

Just then Nero, who had been nosing the path in front, uttered a whine
and turned aside. Hugh held up the lantern and saw that he had gone to
the right. He was following a trail of some kind; whether it was that
of the one whom they were seeking was to be learned. It would take a
fine scent to trace the tiny footsteps under the carpet of snow, but
such an exploit is not one-tenth as