"

"Now, then, you fellows," Horan shouted. "What are you hanging about there
for, Red Gallagher? Bring the carriage up. You fellows can go and have a
smoke for an hour. I'm going to take her down the line a bit."

The two men obeyed and disappeared in the direction of the section house.
Quest looked after them curiously.

"That's a big fellow," he remarked. "What did you call him? Red Gallagher?
I seem to have seen him before."

"He was the most troublesome fellow on the line once, although he was the
biggest worker," the boss replied. "He got five years in the penitentiary
and that seems to have taken the spirit out of him."

"I believe I was in the case," Quest observed carelessly.

"That so! Now then, young ladies," Mr. Horan advised, "hold tight, and
here goes!"

They ambled down the line for about half a mile. Then Horan brought them
to a standstill.

"This is the spot," he declared. "Now, if you want my impressions, you are
welcome to them. All the search has been made on the right-hand side here,
and in New York. I've had my eye on that hill for a long time. My
impression is that he hid there."

"I'll take your advice," Quest decided. "We'll spread out and take a
little exercise in hill climbing."

"Good luck to you!" the boss exclaimed. "You'll excuse my waiting? It
ain't a quarter of a mile back by the road, and I'm going a bit farther
on, inspecting."

Quest slipped something into his hand and the little party left the track,
crossed the road, scrambled down a bank and spread out. In front of them
was a slope some hundreds of feet high, closely overgrown with dwarf trees
and mountain shrubs. It was waste land, uncultivated and uninhabited.
Quest made a careful search of the shrubs and ground close to the spot
which Horan had indicated. He pointed out to his two companions the spot
where the grass was beaten down, and a few yards farther off where a twig
had been broken off from some overhanging trees, as though a man had
pushed his way through.

"This may have been done by the police search," he remarked, "or it may
not. Don't spread out too far, girls, and go slowly. If we find any trace
of James Macdougal on this hill-side, we are going to find it within fifty
yards of this spot."

They searched carefully and deliberately for more than half an hour. Then
Lenora suddenly called out. They looked around to find only her head
visible. She scrambled up, muddy and with wet leaves clinging to her