Van Ness went down to the Branch, to Beach Haven, Manasquan, all the fishing-villages along the coast, among the rest to Sutphen's Point. He talked to old Sutphen himself, his foot resting on a barnacle-eaten log where Jane herself had sat the day before. But the old man was loyal. He was stupid, stared vacantly at Van Ness, had seen no young woman and no dog: there had never been any such at the Point. Van Ness went hurriedly on to the next station, spent a couple of days in the search, and returned to Philadelphia. "So the young lady came back before you?" said the agent, nodding familiarly as he passed the ticket-window. "Yes. You saw her?" "Oh, she bought her ticket of me. Yesterday, you know." "For what point?" Van Ness's voice was so hoarse that the man heard him with difficulty. "Richmond. Took the dog, too." "Give me a ticket for Richmond, please. When does the next train go?" "In half an hour. She has twenty-four hours the start of you, sir," with a significant laugh as he handed out the ticket and change. Van Ness arrived at dawn the following morning at the little wooden shed with its garden of dahlias and lilacs which called itself a dépôt on the outskirts of the drowsy country town so lately the focus on which had rested the eyes of the civilized world. Two or three negroes bustled into activity as the train rolled in: an old woman dusted the rocking-chairs about the stove. They all remembered the tall, handsome young lady with the dog, who had flung about her money so freely the day before. "I brought her breakfast, sah. I'm Dabney. Everybody knows Dabney's reliable. Mighty fine hound, sah. De young lady went on to Morganton, Nothe Callina. Oh, tank you, sah!" Morganton is a village perched on a spur of the Blue Ridge, made dusky by shadows of overhanging hills. The garrulous landlord of the inn was ready to point out his prey to Van Ness. "A lady? Miss Swendon, you mean? I've known her since she was a child. Captain Swendon came to the Balsam Mountings for years for the hunting. Allays brought the little girl. She's broken down terrible. Her father's death's interrupted her, powerful." "She is here, then?" lowering his voice. "No. She went on to the captain's camping-ground on the Old Black. Seemed as if she must go every place where he had been. He allays buried himself among the mountings. I doubt if you can find the place." "Where Miss Swendon can go I surely can follow." "Dunno. She's used to the mountings. P'raps you can get a guide at Asheville. It's the last place whah human beings live--high up on the Black: an old hunter, Glenn and his wife--kind, decent people, but not jest civilized. The captain was allays in cahoot with them, and they was powerful fond of Jane."