Rupert left home one morning to go to the railway, promising to return that evening. Jacquelin sat up for him, but he did not come; and as he did not appear next morning, and no word had come from him, Jacquelin rode down in the evening to see about him. At the station he learned that Rupert had been there, but had left a little before dark, the evening before, to return home. He had fallen in with three or four men who had just come from the city on the train, and were making inquiries concerning the various places and residents in the upper end of the County, something about all of which they had appeared to know. They said they were interested in timber lands and had a good deal of law business they wished attended to, and they wanted advice as to who were the best lawyers of the County; and Rupert said he could tell them all about the lawyers: that General Legaie and Mr. Bagby were the best old lawyers, and his brother and Steve Allen were the best young lawyers. They asked him about Leech and McRaffle. Leech wasn’t anything. Yes, he was—he was a thief, and so was Still. Still had stolen his father’s bonds; but wait until he himself got on the stand, he’d show him up! McRaffle was a turncoat hound, who had stolen money from a woman and then tried to run her out of the County. One of the men who lived about the station told Jacquelin that he had gone up and tried to get Rupert away from the strangers, and urged him to go home, but that the boy was too excited by this time to know what he was doing. “He was talking pretty wildly,” he said, “and was abusing Leech and Still and pretty much all the Rads. I didn’t mind that so much, but he was blowing about that old affair when the negro soldiers were shot, and about the K.K.’s and the capture of the arms, and was telling what he did about it. You know how a boy will do! And I put in to stop him, but he wouldn’t be hearsaid. He said these men were friends of his and had come up to employ you all in a lawsuit, and knew Leech and Still were a parcel of rascals. So I let him alone, and he went off with ’em, along with a wagon they’d hired, saying he was going to show them the country, and I supposed he was safe home.” By midnight the whole population of that part of the County was out, white and black, and the latter were as much interested as the former. All sorts of speculation was indulged in, and all sorts of rumors started. Some thought he had been murdered, and others believed he and his companion had gotten on a spree and had probably gone off together to some adjoining county, or even had turned at some point and gone to the city; but the search continued. Meantime, unknown to the searchers, an unexpected ally had entered the field.