“We surmised it was Injuns,” Neal began. “We found moccasin tracks and other signs. There must have been about half a dozen of the redskins. We found, too, the tracks of a single horse and that we concluded was Hero. So we put this and that together and made up our minds that Steve went off hunting and the Injuns sneaked in after the horses. Well, we were in a dilemma; we wanted to find Steve and we wanted the horse stealers, so we divided; two of us followed up Hero’s tracks and two went for the other horses. Hero worked around in a sort of circle and brought us out on the road where he came up this morning. We’d looked close all the way and there wasn’t any sign of Steve, so we surmised he had struck out for home after he lost his horse and had taken a different way. We knocked around for awhile but after a bit we concluded that we’d better start up the road and see after the other boys; then we met up with Pike. He was to wait at his house for Ira and Reub and get their report. They had come along by there and had gone on. Well, in about half an hour back they came. No luck. Injuns had got so far off that there was no good following them and so we joined forces and came home together about as disgusted a lot as you ever saw. Not a blessed bit of fun the entire time.” “But suppose Steve doesn’t come back, what then?” Christine spoke up sharply. “We’ll scour the country for him.” And this indeed they came to do, for no Stephen appeared that day nor the next nor, indeed, did it seem after a while that he ever would appear. In time it came to be whispered about that he had been captured by the Indians, who must have come upon him as he was trudging home. No one made this explanation of his disappearance to Christine but she intuitively understood that it was the general opinion, yet she did not give up hope, though many a night her fast-flowing tears moistened her pillow, and the joy she had felt in the prospect of life in this new home was overshadowed by dread. CHAPTER IV OFF TO THE WAR