."

"Raiders!" exclaimed Jim Lash.

"Lord only knows. Yaqui says it wasn't raiders."

"Mebbe Sol's just walked off somewheres."

"He was haltered in the corral."

"Send Yaqui to find the hoss's trail, an' let's figger," said Ladd.
"Shore this 's no raider job."

In the swift search that ensued Gale did not have anything to say; but
his mind was forming a conclusion. When he found his old saddle and
bridle missing from the peg in the barn his conclusion became a
positive conviction, and it made him, for the moment, cold and sick and
speechless.

"Hey, Dick, don't take it so much to heart," said Belding. "We'll
likely find Sol, and if we don't, there's other good horses."

"I'm not thinking of Sol," replied Gale.

Ladd cast a sharp glance at Gale, snapped his fingers, and said:

"Damn me if I ain't guessed it, too!"

"What's wrong with you locoed gents?" bluntly demanded Belding.

"Nell has slipped away on Sol," answered Dick.

There was a blank pause, which presently Belding broke.

"Well, that's all right, if Nell's on him. I was afraid we'd lost the
horse."

"Belding, you're trackin' bad," said Ladd, wagging his head.

"Nell has started for Casita," burst out Gale. "She has gone to fetch
Mercedes some word about Thorne. Oh, Belding, you needn't shake your
head. I know she's gone. She tried to persuade me to go, and was
furious when I wouldn't."

"I don't believe it," replied Belding, hoarsely. "Nell may have her
temper. She's a little devil at times, but she always had good sense."

"Tom, you can gamble she's gone," said Ladd.

"Aw, hell, no! Jim, what do you think?" implored Belding.

"I reckon Sol's white head is pointed level an' straight down the
Casita trail. An' Nell can ride. We're losing' time."

That roused Belding to action.

"I say you're all wrong," he yelled, starting for the corrals. "She's
only taking a little ride, same as she's done often. But rustle now.
Find out. Dick, you ride cross the valley. Jim, you hunt up and down
the river. I'll head up San Felipe way. And you, Laddy, take Diablo
and hit the Casita trail. If she really has gone after Thorne you can
catch her in an hour or so."

"Shore I'll go," replied Ladd. "But, Beldin', if you're not plumb
crazy you're close to it. That big white devil can't catch Sol. Not in
an hour or a day or a week! What's more, at the end of any runnin'
time, with an even start, Sol will be farther in the lead. An' no