d gone to Dry Lake and
taken the train for Great Falls, before ever the Kid had been really
missed. The Old Man had not seen the Kid ride up the hill--but he
had been sitting with his chair turned away from the road, and he was
worried about other things and so might easily have missed seeing him.
The Countess had been taking a nap, and she was not expected to know
anything about his departure. And she had not looked into the doughnut
jar--indeed, she was so upset by supper time that, had she looked, she
would not have missed the doughnuts. For the same reason Ole did not
miss his blanket. Ole had not been near his bed; he was out riding and
searching and calling through the coulee and up toward the old Denson
place.

No one dreamed that the Kid had started out with a camp-outfit--if one
might call it that--and with the intention of joining the Happy Family
in the breaks, and of helping them gather their cattle. How could they
dream that? How could they realize that a child who still liked to
be told bedtime stories and to be rocked to sleep, should harbor such
man-size thoughts and ambitions? How could they know that the Kid was
being "a rell ole cowpuncher"?

That night the whole Happy Family, just returned from the Badlands and
warned by Chip at dusk that the Kid was missing, hunted the coulees that
bordered the benchland. A few of the nesters who had horses and could
ride them hunted also. The men who worked at the Flying U hunted, and
Chip hunted frantically. Chip just about worshipped that kid, and in
spite of his calmness and his optimism when he talked to the Little
Doctor, you can imagine the state of mind he was in.

At sunrise they straggled in to the ranch, caught up fresh horses,
swallowed a cup of coffee and what food they could choke down and
started out again. At nine o'clock a party came out from Dry Lake,
learned that the Kid was not yet found, and went out under a captain to
comb systematically through the hills and the coulees.

Before night all the able-bodied men in the country and some who were
not--were searching. It is astonishing how quickly a small army will
volunteer in such an emergency; and it doesn't seem to matter very much
that the country seems big and empty of people ordinarily. They come
from somewhere, when they're needed.

The Little Doctor--oh, let us not talk about the Little Doctor. Such
agonies as she suffered go too deep for words.

The next day after that, Chip saddled