"'Tain't sealed," said he, reasoning with himself, "so there can't be any secrets in it. Let's see--hello! 'Ernest is somewhere in this country; I wish to see you about _him_--and about nothing else.' Whew-w-w! What splendid material for a column, if there was only a live paper in this infernal country! Looking for that young scamp, eh? There _is_ something to her, and I'll help her if I can. Wonder if I'd recognize him if I saw him again? I _ought_ to, if he looks as much like his parents as he used to do. 'Twould do my soul good to make the poor woman smile once; but it's an outrageous shame there's no good daily paper here to work the whole thing up in. With the chase, and fighting, and murder that _may_ come of it, 'twould make the leading sensation for a week!" The agonized reporter clasped his hands behind him and walked slowly back to where he had left the crowd. Most of the citizens had, on seeing the lady depart, taken a drink as a partial antidote to dejection, and strolled away to their respective claims, regardless of the occasional mud which threatened the polish on their boots; but two or three gentlemen of irascible tempers and judicial minds lingered, to decide whether Spidertracks had not, by the act of seeing the lady to the stage, made himself an accessory to her departure, and consequently a fit subject for challenge by every disappointed man in camp. The reporter was in the midst of a very able and voluble defense, when the attention of his hearers seemed distracted by something on the trail by which the original settlers had entered the village. Spidertracks himself looked, shaded his eyes, indulged in certain disconnected fragments of profanity, and finally exclaimed: "Axell himself, by the white coat of Horace Greeley! Wonder who he's got with him! They seem to be having a difficulty about something!" The gentlemen who had arraigned Spidertracks allowed him to be acquitted by default. Far better to them was a fight near by than the most interesting lady afar off. They stuck their hands into their pockets, and stared intently. Finally one of them, in a tone of disgusted resignation, remarked: "Axell ought to be ashamed of hisself; he's draggin' along a little feller not half the size _he_ is. Blamed if he ain't got his match, though; the little feller's jest doin' some gellorious chawin' an' diggin'." The excitement finally overcame the inertia of the party, and each man started deliberately to meet the major and his captive. Spidertracks, faithful to his profession, kept well in advance of the others. Suddenly he exclaimed to himself: "Good Lord! don't they know each other? The major didn't wear that beard when in New York; but the boy--he's just the same scamp, in spite of his dirt and rags. If _she_ were to see them now--but, pshaw! 'twould all fall flat--no live paper to take hold of the matter and work it up."