me, just now. She wants Jim Barlow. Says she went
to his room but the nurse said he wasn't in. Jim knows about some books
she wants to send for, when the mail-bag is sent out. Do you know where
he is? Or father? 'Tisn't half-fun, this inspection of San Leon without
Dad here to tell us things. I haven't seen him this morning, any more
than I have Jim. Do you know where they are?"

Poor Lady Gray was not much better at keeping secrets than old Lemuel
was. She had had to put a great constraint upon herself not to reveal
the anxiety which consumed her. Hours had now passed since Mr. Ford had
ridden away, with a couple of men attending him. All the other men not
absolutely required to look after the place had been despatched to
search on foot. Their long-delayed return seemed to prove the matter of
the sick boy's disappearance a more serious one than at first imagined.
Her answer was a sudden wringing of her white hands and the tremulous
cry:

"No, no, I don't. Pray God, no tragedy marks the opening of our home!"

CHAPTER VII

A RIFLE PRACTICE

"Mother, what do you mean? Don't turn so white and do speak! What
'tragedy' could have happened up here in this lovely place?" demanded
Leslie, putting his arm around the lady's shoulders and wondering if she
had suddenly become ill. She was slender but had never complained of any
weakness, nor shown the least fatigue during her long care of him at San
Diego. Since then, she had been like a happy girl with him and his
father but something was amiss with her now.

In a moment she had calmed herself and was already blaming herself for
her disobedience to her husband's request for silence. However, this
last matter was a small one; for, if the missing lad was not soon found,
all would have to know it. Indeed, it might be better that they did so
now. They knew him better than his hosts did and possibly might give a
clue to his whereabouts. So she told them all she knew, and the surmise
that he had wandered away in a fit of delirium. The very telling
restored her own courage, and, as yet, there was little fear showing
upon the faces of her young guests.

Except on Dorothy's. Her brown eyes were staring wide and all the pretty
color of her cheeks had faded. As if she saw a vision the others could
not she stood clasping and unclasping her hands, and utterly sick at
heart for the loss of her early friend. Longer than she had known any of
these here about her she had known poor