The name of the young lady's father was Andrew Seldon, and if any miner
present could tell aught regarding him, or had known such a man, the
landlord wished him to come and tell him all that he could about him.

But it was the duty, and but justice, for one and all of them to set out
on the search for the young stranger who had disappeared from their
midst, and he wished to know if they would not take a day off and do
so, for it might be that he had been injured, and was then lying
suffering and deserving their sympathy and aid somewhere among the
mountains.

A perfect yell in answer to the request of Landlord Larry told him that
Bernard Brandon would be found if he was in or near Last Chance, and so
it was agreed that all would start at dawn the following morning, many
mounted, many on foot, and report the result, if good or bad, at the
hotel at night.

So the miners' meeting broke up, and with the first gray in the east the
following morning, four-fifths of Last Chance were off, searching for
the missing man.

As they wore themselves out, or completed the search over the circuit
assigned them, the men came in and reported at the hotel. Each had the
same story to tell, that the search had been a fruitless one.

Many of the mounted men did not come in until after dark, but theirs was
the same story, that no trace of the missing stranger could be found.

At last every man who had been on the search had returned, and not the
slightest trace of the missing Brandon had been discovered by a single
one who had gone out to look for him.

No one remembered to have seen him very lately, and so his fate was
unsolved, and the miners put it down as unknown, with the belief that he
had either been kidnaped by road-agents or had fallen into some stream,
or from a cliff, and thus met his death.

The belief of Landlord Larry and Harding was that Bernard Brandon had
been captured, for some reason, by road-agents, and this convinced them
that there were spies of the outlaws then dwelling in their midst; but
what the motive for kidnaping the man was, they could only conjecture,
believing it to be ransom that they thought the miners would pay, and,
if they did not, that Celeste Seldon would.

This belief, of spies in their midst, caused a very unpleasant and
uneasy feeling among all, for hardly any man knew whether he could trust
his own comrade or not.

Doctor Dick came in late from his search and rounds to visit his
patients