"I'd never say Ludlum done that job," he announced decisively the moment he returned. "I'd swear to his brand on one hide there at any rate, and mebbe more. There's a good twenty-five skins in the bunch, and you didn't lose more'n a dozen critters all told, did you?" "Just a dozen," she answered, "one of them only lately. It's hide wasn't there." "And Ludlum's been gone out of here six weeks?" "Two months. But if he didn't do it, who did? Who?" "That's your next job, I reckon, finding out. If one of your critters has turned up missin' this last month, then I'd sure count Ludlum out and smell a fresh trail for the thief. I'd quit frettin' myself right now, anyhow. Rob'll be along soon and mebbe he can fit this puzzle game together." His kind heart was distressed at the thought of leaving the girl alone with her gloomy thoughts, but he knew that she would scorn the idea of his staying. Being left alone was one of the things that the women of the cattle country took for granted, and Harry, he knew, was not a "quitter." But when he was leaving he held her hand in his hard grasp a second or two longer than usual, and his blue eyes tried to say more than his tongue ever had. Perhaps Harry understood their meaning, for she tilted her head and smiled. "Run on, now," she said. "The moon sets early, and you'll be late getting home. If you see Bobby down yonder, tell him to find a buyer for my herd instead of hay for them. Tell him, in fact, that he must sell them. I have worked it out, and I know we haven't money enough to make our payment in December. Now, don't forget." "You bet! I'll see that they're sold if I have to peddle 'em back to Ludlum himself," promised Garnett as he went off into the twilight. As Harry watched the dusk close round him she felt, for the first time in all her happy, courageous young life, absolutely alone. CHAPTER XXI During the following days Harry, with her mind on the mystery of her slaughtered animals, spent all her spare time looking for the recently lost scrub and keeping an eye open for suspicious-looking or stranger cowboys. She was putting up her pony one evening after a fruitless search when footsteps approaching through the twilight made her turn sharply, with every sense on guard. As she did so Joe Biane emerged from the shadows. "Why, Joe!" she exclaimed. "How you startled me! What do you want?" Joe laughed awkwardly. "Is Rob to home?" "No. Did you want anything special?" "Only to ask him could we borrow the team to-morrow to pack our traps to Shoshone. We're pullin' out." "Pulling out! For the winter, you mean?" "No. Quittin'. For good." "Why, Joe! What on earth for? Why didn't Isita tell me before? What will you do with your stock? And your hay? Where are you going?"