‘If there is any fault, it is mine, for going to sleep,’ said poor Aunt Truth; ‘but I never dreamed he would dare to wander off alone, my poor little disobedient darling! What shall we do?’ ‘Have you spoken to Pancho and Hop Yet?’ asked Phil. ‘Yes; they have seen nothing.’ Hop Yet just at this moment issued from his kitchen with an immense platter of mutton-stew and dumplings, which he deposited on the table. On being questioned again, he answered as before, with the greatest serenity, intimating that Dicky would come home ‘heap bime-by’ when he got ‘plenty hungly.’ He seemed to think a lost boy or two in a family rather a trifle than otherwise, and wound up his unfeeling remarks with the practical one, ‘Dinner all leady; you no eat mutton, he get cold! Misser Wins’, I no find pickle; you catchum!’ ‘I don’t believe he would care if we all died right before his eyes,’ muttered Polly, angrily. ‘I should just like to see a Chinaman’s heart once, and find out whether it was made of resin, or cuttle-fish, or what.’ ‘Well,’ said Phil, as Dr. Winship came through the trees from the card-room, ‘we must start out this instant, and of course we can find him somehow, somewhere; he hasn’t been gone over two hours, and he couldn’t walk far, that’s certain. Now, Uncle Doc, shall we all go different ways, and leave the girls here to see if he doesn’t turn up?’ ‘Oh, papa,’ cried Bell, ‘do not leave us at home! We can hunt as well as any one; we know every foot of the cañon. Let me go with Geoff, and we’ll follow the brook trail.’ ‘Very well. Now, mamma, Pancho and I will go down to the main road, and you wait patiently here. Make all the noise you can, children; and the one who finds him must come back to the camp and blow the horn. Hop Yet, we go now; if Dicky comes back, you blow the horn yourself, will you?’ ‘All light, boss. You eat um dinner now; then go bime-by; mutton heap cold; you—’ ‘Dinner!’ shouted Jack. ‘Confound your impudence! If you say dinner again, I’ll cut the queue off your stupid head.’ ‘Good!’ murmured Polly, giving a savage punch to her blue Tam o’ Shanter cap. ‘Jack, Jack!’ remonstrated Aunt Truth. ‘I know, dear auntie; but the callous old heathen makes me so mad I can’t contain myself. Come, Margery, let’s be off. Get your shawl; and hurrah for the one who comes back to blow the horn first! I’ll wager you ten to one I’ll have Dick in auntie’s lap inside the hour!’—at which Aunt Truth’s eyes brightened, and she began to take heart again. But as he tore past the brush kitchen and out into the woods, dragging Madge after him at a breathless pace, he shut his lips together rather grimly, saying, ‘I’d give five hundred dollars (s’posin’ I had a cent) to see that youngster safe again.’ ‘Tell me one thing, Jack,’ said Margery, her teeth chattering with nervousness; ‘are there any animals in this cañon that would attack him?’