hey went forth, with
a dogged persistence and a courage that made Mrs. Singleton Corey
marvel in spite of her absorption in her own anxiety.

Men with fresh horses and fresh supplies came up from the valley, and
the search went on, settling to a loose system of signals, relief
shifts and the laying out of certain districts for certain men to
cover, yard by yard. The body of Hank Brown was lashed upon a horse
and taken down to Quincy, and in the evening the mystery of his death
was discussed in the kitchen, where the men sat in a haze of tobacco
smoke. Mike had been reported absent from his cabin, the day that
Murphy came up from the valley, and he had not returned. So there was
mystery in plenty to keep the talk going. One man shot dead from
ambush and three persons missing, were enough to stir the most
phlegmatic soul--and Mrs. Singleton Corey, however self-possessed her
manner, was not phlegmatic.

Stormy day followed stormy day, and still they found no trace of
Marion, got no glimpse of Jack. There were days when the wind made it
physically impossible to climb the peak and search for the cave under
Taylor Rock, dangerous to be abroad in the woods. Hank had said that
he knew about where the cave was--but Hank's lips were closed forever
upon garrulous conversation. Two or three others were more or less
familiar with that barren crest, having hunted bear in that locality.
They led the parties that turned their faces toward the peak whenever
the wind and the snow promised to hold back for a time.

They began to whisper together, out in the kitchen where they thought
that Mrs. Singleton Corey could not hear. They whispered about the
fight that had taken place up at the lookout station, last summer,
when Hank had ridden into town sullen and with blackened eyes and
swollen lips, and had cursed the lookout on Mt. Hough. It began to
seem imperative that they locate that cave as soon as possible, and
the man who had shot Hank.

Kate mourned because Fred was not there, and talked as though his
presence would right nearly everything. That, and the whispering and
the meaning glances among the men when she appeared in the room,
exasperated Mrs. Singleton Corey almost beyond endurance. Why did they
not find Jack and the girl? What possible use could Fred be, more than
any other man? Why didn't somebody do something? She had never seen so
inefficient a country, it seemed to her. Why, they had even let the
trains stop running, a