cheerfully.
He and the commissario had their orders, and they would be obliged to
execute them. The results must be left for a court of justice to
decide.

They rode away the following morning, and there seemed nothing for it
but to wait at the estancia until more news was forthcoming. For Peter
the days were the saddest of his life, and left an impression upon him
which nothing ever quite removed afterwards. He became older suddenly,
and a certain boyishness, which was characteristic of him, was gone and
never returned again. Life, which had once seemed so simple to him and
so easily lived, so full of pleasures and of good times and of good
comrades, had suddenly become complex and filled with difficulties, and
made up of grave decisions and shadowed by a sorrow which would
probably be felt as long as he lived. Ross would not let him stay
indoors, and mercifully gave him a double share of work to do. The
weather was cooler now, and the days could be filled with outdoor
occupation from morning till night. There were no siestas in the
afternoon or lazy dawdling over afternoon coffee in the heat of the day
to remind him of long gossips with Toffy, and the evenings were shorter
and not so difficult to fill.

'I 'm an awful bore, Ross!' said Peter, having sat silent from
dinner-time until he went to bed one night; 'but I can't help it.'

'I know you can't,' said Ross kindly.

The big man, who was a poor player of cards at the best of times,
became seized with a desire to learn picquet, and, strange as his
method of consolation may have been, Peter knew what the good fellow
meant by it, and taught him the game and got through the time somehow.

There was still no news of Purvis; the man seemed to have vanished in
his own mysterious way, and nothing could be heard of him. It was
ascertained that he was well supplied with money, and it was thought
that, as his child would be incapable of any very long journeys or
unusual hardships, the discovery of his whereabouts near home might
lead to the discovery of the father. But the thing remained a mystery.
Dunbar's long lean frame grew leaner than ever as he searched and
journeyed and telegraphed without obtaining any results.

It was the boy who appeared first, and then without his father.
Perhaps Purvis discovered that escape would be easier without the
burden of the child, or it may have been that his queer affection for
him had determined him to seek safety for t