foolish moment, as I hurried toward the house, that they'd
found my Dinkie. But it was a false hope. Whinnie had been frightened
at the empty shack and the wailing babies, and had thought something
might have happened to me. So he had taken my duck-gun and fired those
signal-shots.

He leaned against the muddy wagon-wheel and said "Guid God! Guid God!"
over and over again, when I told him Dinkie was lost. Then he flung
down the gun and drew his twisted old body up, peering through the
twilight at my face.

I suppose it frightened him a little.

"Dinna fear, lassie, dinna fear," he said. He said it in such a deep
and placid voice that it carried consolation to my spirit, and brought
a shadow of conviction trailing along behind it. "We'll find him. I
say it before the livin' God, _we'll find him_!"

But that little candle of hope went out in the cold air, for I could
see that night was coming closer, cold and dark and silent. I forgot
about Whinnie, and didn't even notice which direction he took when he
strode off on his lame foot. But I called Bobs to me, and tried to
quiet his whimpering, and talked to him, and told him Dinkie was lost,
the little Dinkie we all loved, and implored him to go and find my boy
for me.

But the poor dumb creature didn't seem to understand me, for he
cringed and trembled and showed a tendency to creep off to the stable
and hide there, as though the weight of this great evil which had
befallen his house lay on him and him alone. And I was trying to coax
the whimpering Bobs back to the shack-steps when Dinky-Dunk himself
came galloping up through the uncertain light, with Lady Alicia a few
hundred yards behind him.

"Have you found him?" my husband asked, quick and curt. But there was
a pale greenish-yellow tint to his face that made me think of
Rocquefort cheese.

"No," I told him. I tried to speak calmly, determined not to break
down and make a scene there before Lady Alicia, who'd reined up,
stock-still, and sat staring in front of her, without a spoken word.

I could see Dinky-Dunk's mouth harden.

"Have you any clue--any hint?" he asked, and I could catch the quaver
in his voice as he spoke.

"Not a thing," I told him, remembering that we were losing time. "He
simply wandered off, when that Indian girl wasn't looking. He didn't
even have a cap or a coat on."

I heard Lady Alicia, who had slipped down out of the saddle, make a
little sound as I said this. It was half a gasp