, as anxious as Clemmer had been to know the news. His
face grew very sober when he heard that Nellie had not been found.

"I wish I knew more of this territory--I'd go after her myself," he
said, earnestly. "I hope you won't abandon the search?"

"Oh, no, lad; that is not my style. But I must get back to the camp
first and start the train along. I'll be on this ground again by
midnight."

"Then why can't I stay here? I am not afraid."

"Alone?" ejaculated Clemmer.

"Yes--if you want to join Pawnee."

"By gosh, but that boy's nervy fer a city chap!" cried the cowboy
boomer, in admiration.

"Well, you know there's a girl in this, Cal," rejoined Pawnee Brown,
dryly. "And I reckon she's a girl well worth going through fire and
water for."

At this Dick blushed.

"I want to find out about Rasco, too," he hastened to say. "You know I
was going through with him, and he was going to do some business for my
father, later on."

The matter was talked over for several minutes, and it was at last
decided that Dick should secrete himself in a thicket and stand watch
there or close by until he heard from Pawnee Brown again.

"Be on your guard, boy, for enemies may be thick here," were the
boomer's last words of caution. "Don't uncover to anybody until you are
positive it is a friend."

"And here's a bite for yer," added Clemmer, handing out some rations he
carried in a haversack. "You'll get mighty hungry ere the sun comes up
again."

In a minute more the two horsemen were galloping away. Dick watched them
until they were lost to view, then dropped to a sitting position on a
flat rock in the centre of a clump of trees.

The youth's heart beat rather strongly. He was not used to this sort of
thing. How different the prairies and woods were to the city streets and
buildings.

"Lonesome isn't a name for it," he mused. "Puts me in mind of one vast
cemetery--a gigantic Greenwood, only there aren't any monuments. What is
that?"

There was a flutter and a whirl, and Dick grasped his pistol tighter. It
was only a night-bird, starting up now that the sun was beginning to
set.

Soon the woods and the prairies began to grow dark. The sun was lost to
view behind tall trees which cast shadows of incalculable length. It
grew colder, too, and he buttoned his light coat tightly about him.

To pass the time he began to eat some of the food left behind by
Clemmer. It was not particularly appetizing, and in the city Dick might