im from the gate. But she received
no answering whinny. Slightly worried, she entered the corral and
stepped to the stable door, and again sounded his name. Again she
received no answering whinny. She entered the stable, walked past the
stalls, peered in at each with increasing alarm. Only the saddle-horse
and the family horse met her troubled eyes. She stood for a moment
dismayed, then once more she sounded the horse's name. But, as before,
she received no answering whinny.

Puzzled, perplexed, troubled with misgivings, yet refusing to believe
the worst, she fell to analyzing the thing. She knew that since coming
to the ranch Pat at no time had been outside the corral save in her
charge. Also she recalled that only a short hour or two before she had
given him sweets and had talked with him. Nor could the horse have
strayed out of the inclosure, because she remembered that the gate was
latched when she had reached it. All these facts flashed across her as
she stood with grave eyes sweeping the stable. Finally she stepped back
to the door and gazed out into the sunlight of the corral; but, as
before, the inclosure was empty and silent, and now, somehow,
forbidding. She called again--called to the horse, called to the
Mexican. But again came only the echo of her voice, sounding hollow and
solemn and plaintive through the stable.

Suddenly her heart stopped beating. She remembered that the hostler had
left for town on foot early in the morning. And now her fears broke
bounds. The horse was gone! Some one had come in Miguel's absence. Her
Pat had been stolen! He was gone for ever out of her life! Standing a
moment, trembling with bitterness, she darted out of the stable, out of
the corral, across the _patio_. She sped into the house and her
father's study, caught up the receiver of the telephone.

And then, after a long time, the connection. And her father's voice. And
her frantic inquiry. And the Judge's smiling reply. And her recital of
the facts--pleading, pitiful, almost whimpering. And now the Judge's
serious rejoinder. And then her imperious request that he come home. And
the Judge's regretful reply--could not on account of pressing matters.
And then her tearful, choking outburst into the transmitter! And now
suddenly the wires crossing and a strange voice demanding that she get
off. And with it her utter collapse. She whirled away from the
telephone, flung herself down upon a couch, and gave way to a wild
outburst