"Phil, oh, Phil, come, come!" it pleaded.

I started up and stared around me.

CHAPTER IX

THE SEARCH FOR THE MISSING

Also Time runnin' into years--
A thousand Places left be'ind;
An' Men from both two 'emispheres
Discussin' things of every kind;
So much more near than I 'ad known,
So much more great than I 'ad guessed--
An' me, like all the rest, alone,
But reachin' out to all the rest!

--KIPLING.

"Uncle Cam, where is O'mie? I haven't seen him yet," I broke in upon the
older men in the council. "Could anything have happened to him?"

The priest rose hurriedly.

"I have been hoping to see him every minute," he said. "Has anybody seen
him this morning?"

A flurry followed. Everybody thought he had seen somebody else who had
been with O'mie, but nobody, first hand, could report of him.

"Why, I thought he was with the boys," Cam Gentry exclaimed. "Nobody
could keep track of nobody else last night."

"I thought I saw him this morning," said Dr. Hemingway.
"But"--hesitatingly--"I do not believe I did either. I just had him in
mind as I watched Henry Anderson's boys go by."

"All three of us are not equal to one O'mie," Clayton Anderson declared.

"What part of town did he have, Philip?" asked Le Claire.

"No part," I answered. "We had to take the boys that were out there
under the oak."

Dr. Hemingway called a council at once, and all who knew anything of the
missing boy reported. I could give what had been told to Aunt Candace
and myself only in a general way, in order to shield Tell Mapleson. Cam
had seen O'mie only a minute, just before midnight.

"He went racin' out draggin' somethin' after him, an' jumped over the
porch railin' here," pointing to the north, "stid o' goin' down the
steps. O'mie's double-geared lightin' for quickness anyhow, but last
night he jist made lightnin' seem slow the way he got off the
reservation an' into the street. It roused me up. I was half asleep
settin' here waitin' to put them strangers to bed again. So I set up an'
waited fur the boy to show up an' apologize fur his not bein' no
quicker, when in comes Phil; an' ye all know the rest. I've not laid an
eye on O'mie sence, but bein' short on range I took it he was here but
out of sight. Oh, Lord!" Cam groaned, "can anything have happened to
him?"

While Cam was speaking I noticed that Jean Pahusca who had been loafing
about at the far side of the crowd, was standing behind Father Le