"Mine's gone too," said he. "Barn's burned, and all the hay. House is
there, anyhow. Lemme out, Wid."

"No, hold on," said his neighbor. "There's no hurry for me to go home,
now that's sure. Your leg's bad, Sim. I'll take you down."

So they drove down Sim Gage's lane between the wire fence and the
willows. Sim was looking eagerly ahead. Continually he moaned to
himself low, as if in pain. But the hard-faced man on the seat beside
him knew it was not in physical pain.

They fastened the team and hurried on about, searching the premises.
The barn was gone, and the hay. Two or three head of slaughtered stock
lay partially consumed, close to the hay stack. The house still stood,
for the dirt roof had stopped the flames which were struggling up from
the door frame along the heavy logs.

"The damn, murdering thieves," said Wid Gardner. "Look, Sim--your
horse and mule was both killed in there." He pointed to the burned
barn. "What _made_ them? What do they gain by this? _I_ know!"

But Sim Gage was hobbling to his half-burnt home. Gasping, he looked
in. It was empty!

"Where's she gone, Wid?" said he, when he could speak. "You reckon Big
Aleck--? No. No!"

"Nothing's too low down for him," said Wid Gardner.

There were footprints in the path where the neighbors had stood, but
Sim's eye caught others not trampled out, in the strip of sand toward
the willows--two footprints, large, and beside them two others, small.
The two, old big-game hunters as they were, began to puzzle out this
double trail.

"He was a-leading her out this way, Sim," said Wid, pointing. "Look
a-yonder, where we come in--them wheel tracks wasn't yours nor mine.
Now, look-a-here, in this little open place where the ants has ate it
clean--here's her footprints, right here. No use to hunt the creek or
the willers, Sim--she's went off in a wagon."

"He took my six-shooter," said Sim, who had hurriedly examined the
interior of his home. "Nothing else is gone. Wait while I go git my
rifle. It's in the tent."

When he had returned with rifle and belt, Wid turned towards him.
"I'll tell you, Sim," said he, "we'll run over to my place and look
around, and come back here and eat before it gets plumb dark. I'll
saddle up and pass the word."

They climbed back into the wagon seat and once more passed out along
Sim Gage's little lane. At the end, where it joined the main road, Wid
pulled up.

"Look yonder, Sim!" said he. "T