in their
loudest tones, but nothing except the hollow echoes came back to them.

Nick examined the face of his father's watch by the light of the lantern
he carried, and saw that it lacked but a few minutes of nine. They had
been searching for the lost child, as this proved, for nearly two hours.

"It seems to me," said Mr. Layton, as the party came to a halt, "that we
are not likely to accomplish anything by hunting in this aimless
fashion."

"What better can we do?" asked Mr. Kilgore.

"Thus far we have been forced to confine ourselves to the road,
excepting when we diverge a few feet: this renders our work about the
same as if done by a single person. What I propose, therefore, is that
we separate."

"How will that help us?"

"It may not, but we shall cover three or four times the amount of space
(I judge Mrs. Ribsam would prefer to remain with her husband and son on
account of the single lantern), and it follows that some one of us must
pass closer to the spot where Nellie is lying."

This seemed a sensible suggestion, and the two men turned to the
afflicted father to learn what he thought of it.

He shook his head.

"Not yet,--not yet; we goes a leetle furder."

Nothing was added by way of explanation, and yet even little Nick knew
why he had protested: he wished that all might keep together until they
reached the creek. If nothing was learned of his child there, then he
would follow the plan of the teacher.

But something seemed to whisper to the parent that the place where they
would gain tidings of little Nellie was near that dark, flowing water,
which, like such streams, seemed to be always reaching out for some one
to strangle in its depths.

"Perhaps Mr. Ribsam is right," said the teacher, after a silence which
was oppressive even though brief; "we will keep each other's company,
for it is lonely work tramping through the woods, where there is no
beaten path to follow."

Thereupon the strange procession resumed its march toward the distant
town of Dunbarton, pausing at short intervals to call and signal to the
missing one.

It was a vast relief to all that the weather continued so mild and
pleasant. In the earlier part of the day there were some signs of an
approaching storm, but the signs had vanished and the night was one of
the most pleasant seen in September.

Had the rain begun to fall, or had the temperature lowered, the mother
would have been distracted, for nothing could have lesse