its soft spell upon all objects
far or near, and melting through the dim blue on the distant hilltop
into the hot azure of the great dome above.

For an hour the watchers on the hill remained undisturbed, talking in
undertones. For the most part, they speculated on the significance of
the faint sounds that came up from below. Sometimes they could trace the
crash of a horse through dry underbrush; sometimes a tumultuous clamor
of commanding voices would tell them that a flat boat was being worked
across a broad creek or a pond; sometimes a hardly audible whirr, and
the metallic clinking of a bicycle bell would tell them that the
wheelmen were speeding on the search. But for the best part of the time
only nature's harmony of sounds came up through the ever-lightening
gloom.

But with the first of daylight came the neighbors who had not been
summoned, and they, of course, came running. It was also noticeable of
this contingent that their attire was somewhat studied, and showed more
or less elaborate preparation for starting on the already started hunt.
Noticeable also it was, that after much sagacious questioning and
profoundly wise discussion, the most of the new-comers either hung about
peering out into the dawn and making startling discoveries at various
points, or else went back to their houses to get bicycles, or horses, or
forgotten suspenders. The little world of a suburban town sorts itself
out pretty quickly and pretty surely. There are the men who do and the
men who don't; and very few of the men who _did_, in that particular
town, were in bed half an hour after the loss of that child was known.

But, after all, the late arrivals were useful in their way, and their
wives, who came along later, were still more useful. The men were
fertile in suggestions for tempting and practicable breakfasts; and the
women actually brought the food along; and by the time that the world
was well alight, the early risers were bustling about and serving coffee
and tea, and biscuits and fruit, and keeping up that semblance of
activity and employment that alone can carry poor humanity through long
periods of suspense and anxiety. And the first on the field were the
last to eat and the least critical of their fare.

It was eight o'clock when the first party of searchers returned to the
hill. There were eight of them. They stopped a little below the crib and
beckoned to Penrhyn to come down to them. He went, white-faced and a
little