ob is lying somewhere with a broken leg!"

CHAPTER XXII

OFF FOR HELP

Betty's heart thumped, but she managed to control her voice. She was
now convinced that the sharpers had something to do with Bob's
disappearance.

Miss Hope was so beside herself with grief and fear that Betty
thought, with the practical wisdom that was far beyond her years,
that it would be better for her to occupy herself with searching than
to remain in the house and let her imagination run riot.

Miss Charity came tremblingly out with a lantern, and after the milk
was strained--for the habits of every day living hold even in times
of trouble and distress--they set out, an old lady on either side of
Betty, who had taken the lantern.

It was a weird performance, that tramp over the uneven fields with a
flickering lantern throwing dim shadows before them and the bushes
and trees assuming strange and terrifying shapes, fantastic beyond
the power of clear daylight to make them. More than once Miss Charity
started back in fright, and Miss Hope, who was stronger, shook so
with nervousness that she found it difficult to walk. Betty, too, was
much overwrought, and it is probable that if either a jack rabbit or
a white owl had crossed the path of the three there would have been
instant flight. However, they saw nothing more alarming than their
own shadows and a few harmless little insects that the glow of the
lantern attracted.

"Suppose the poor, dear boy is lying somewhere with a broken leg!"
Miss Hope kept repeating. "How would we get a doctor for him? Could
we get him back to the house?"

"Think how selfish we were to sit down and eat supper--we ought to
have known something was wrong with him," grieved Miss Charity. "I'd
rather have lost both cows than have anything happen to Bob."

Betty could not share their fear that Bob was injured. The memory of
that one bar down haunted her, though she could give no explanation.
Then the cow had come back. Betty had positive proof that the animal
had not wandered to the half of the farm she had explored, and Bob's
section had been nearer the house. Why had Daisy stayed away till
almost dark, when milking time was at half past five? And the cow had
been milked! Betty forebore to call the aunts' attention to this, and
they were too engrossed in their own conjectures to have noticed the
fact.

"Well, he isn't on the farm." Miss Hope made this reluctant admission
after they had visited every n