rately
turning down the blankets and made a quick examination of that as well
as of the other beds.

They were empty.

Hastening across the cabin, the two men searched in the berths at the
farther end with parental eagerness, but all in vain, the pup meantime
dodging between their legs and chewing at their trousers.

"Tintoretto!" said Jim, in a flash of deduction. "He must have got out
when somebody opened the door. Somebody's been here and stole my
little boy!"

"By jinks!" said Keno, hauling at his sleeves in excess of emotion.
"But who?"

"Come on," answered Jim, distraught and wild. "Come down to camp!
Somebody's playin' us a trick!"

Again they shut the pup inside, and then they fairly ran down the
trail, through the darkness, to the town below.

A number of men were standing in the street, among them the teamster
and Field, the father of Borealis. They were joking, laughing, wasting
time.

"Boys," cried Jim, as he hastened towards the group, "has any one seen
little Skeezucks? Some one's played a trick and took him off!
Somebody's been to the cabin and stole my little boy!"

"Stole him?" said Field. "Why, where was you and Keno?"

"Down to Doc's to get some milk. He wanted bread and milk," Jim
explained, in evident anguish. "You fellows might have seen, if any
one fetched him down the trail. You're foolin'. Some of you took him
for a joke!"

"It wouldn't be no joke," answered Lufkins, the teamster. "We 'ain't
got him, Jim, on the square."

"Of course we 'ain't got him. We 'ain't took him for no joke," said
Field. "Nobody'd take him away like that."

"Why don't we ring the bar of steel we used for a bell," suggested one
of the miners. "That would fetch the men--all who 'ain't gone back on
shift."

"Good idea," said Field. "But I ought to get back home and eat some
dinner."

He did not, however, depart. That Jim was in a fever of excitement and
despair they could all of them see. He hastened ahead of the group to
the shop of Webber. and taking a short length of iron chain, which he
found on the earth, he slashed and beat at the bar of steel with
frantic strength.

The sharp, metallic notes rang out with every stroke. The bar was
swaying like a pendulum. Blow after blow the man delivered, filling
all the hollows of the hills with wild alarm.

Out of saloons and houses men came sauntering, or running, according to
the tension of their nerves. Many thought some house must