so, and they believed that Hines
had come back, had quarreled with him again, and had knocked him down.

"As Henry had in a way handed over to me his responsibility for the boy,
and as I wanted to transfer the money, I waited for three weeks at the
ranch, hoping he would turn up again. I saw the Thorwald woman, but she
protested that she did not know where he was. And I made two attempts
to see and warn Jud Clark, but failed both times. Then one night the
Thorwald woman came in, looking like a ghost, and admitted that Hines
had been hiding in the mountains since Henry's death, that he insisted
he had killed him, and that he blamed Jud Clark for that, and for all
the rest of his troubles. She was afraid he would kill Clark. The three
of us, the two men at the ranch and myself, prepared to go into the
mountains and hunt for him, before he got snowed in.

"Then came the shooting at the Clark place, and I rode over that night
in a howling storm and helped the coroner and a Norada doctor in the
examination. All the evidence was against Clark, especially his running
away. But I happened on Hattie Thorwald outside on a verandah--she'd
been working at the house--and I didn't need any conversation to tell me
what she thought. All she said was:

"He didn't do it, doctor. He's still in the mountains."

"He's been here to-night, Hattie, and you know it. He shot the wrong
man."

"But she swore he hadn't been, and at the end I didn't know. I'll say
right now that I don't know. But I'll say, too, that I believe that
is what happened, and that Hines probably stayed hidden that night on
Hattie Thorwald's place. I went there the next day, but she denied it
all, and said he was still in the mountains. She carried on about the
blizzard and his being frozen to death, until I began to think she was
telling the truth.

"The next day I did what only a tenderfoot would do, started into the
mountains alone. Bill and Jake were out with a posse after Clark, and
I packed up some food and started. I'll not go into the details of that
trip. I went in from the Dry River Canyon, and I guess I faced death a
dozen times the first day. I had a map, but I lost myself in six hours.
I had food and blankets and an axe along, and I built a shelter and
stayed there overnight. I had to cut up one of my blankets the next
morning and tie up the horse's feet, so he wouldn't sink too deep in the
snow. But it stayed cold and the snow hardened, and we got along