or his house."

"And you don't know what's gone of him?" said the girl quickly.

"No; I haven't seen him for two weeks."

"There, I told you so!" said the girl, turning nervously to her parents.
"I knew it. He hasn't seen him for two weeks." Then, looking almost
tearfully at Clarence's face, she said, "No more have we."

"But," said Clarence impatiently, "something must have happened. Where
is his house?"

"Taken away by them jumpers," interrupted the old farmer; "a lot of
roughs that pulled it down and carted it off in a jiffy before our very
eyes without answerin' a civil question to me or her. But he wasn't
there, nor before, nor since."

"No," added the old woman, with flashing eyes, "or he'd let 'em have
what ther' was in his six-shooters."

"No, he wouldn't, mother," said the girl impatiently, "he'd CHANGED, and
was agin all them ideas of force and riotin'. He was for peace and
law all the time. Why, the day before we missed him he was tellin' me
California never would be decent until people obeyed the laws and the
titles were settled. And for that reason, because he wouldn't fight
agin the law, or without the consent of the law, they've killed him, or
kidnapped him away."

The girl's lips quivered, and her small brown hands twisted the edges of
her blue checked apron. Although this new picture of Jim's peacefulness
was as astounding and unsatisfactory as his own disappearance, there was
no doubt of the sincerity of poor Phoebe's impression.

In vain did Clarence point out to them there must be some mistake; that
the trespassers--the so-called jumpers--really belonged to the same
party as Hooker, and would have no reason to dispossess him; that, in
fact, they were all HIS, Clarence's, tenants. In vain he assured them of
Hooker's perfect security in possession; that he could have driven the
intruders away by the simple exhibition of his lease, or that he could
have even called a constable from the town of Fair Plains to protect him
from mere lawlessness. In vain did he assure them of his intention to
find his missing friend, and reinstate him at any cost. The conviction
that the unfortunate young man had been foully dealt with was fixed in
the minds of the two women. For a moment Clarence himself was staggered
by it.

"You see," said the young girl, with a kindling face, "the day before
he came back from Robles, ther' were some queer men hangin' round his
cabin, but as they were the same kind that went