Flora was not accustomed to carrying a pack and she had to drop it at last. She made a shelter in the heart of a thicket of young firs, built a good fire, cut small boughs for her bed, fed the dogs, ate her own cold supper and rolled herself in three double blankets. But several hours passed before sleep came to her. It was her first night in the woods and, warm as she was, she shivered continually, and a creeping chill played on the nape of her neck at every rush and whisper and sly footfall of wind and wood and frosty snow. But her conscience disturbed her even more than her fears. At last she fell asleep, with a big dog curled on either side. It was close upon supper time when Mrs. Ducat went to Flora's room and discovered her absence. A note on the dressing table said: "I have gone to look for Jim. Don't worry." The grandfathers toddled forth and took a look around by lantern-light but the tracks of the snowshoes were already drifted full. They agreed that both Jim and the girl had gone north and that, as they had plenty of grub, there was nothing to worry about. CHAPTER XI THE WESTWARD TRAIL The reduced Ducats were half-way through supper when Sheriff Hart and Widow Wilson got back from Millbrook. The sheriff and the widow had interviewed Amos Hammond separately and together, and Amos (from whom the pellets of lead had been picked by a doctor) had withdrawn his charge against Jim Todhunter and refused to make one against the indomitable widow. The sheriff drove away after supper. He hadn't been gone more than twenty minutes before Homer Steeves arrived. Homer twiddled his thumbs for half an hour, then asked point-blank why Flora was not in evidence. "She's out, an' I can't rightly say exactly when she'll be home," said Mrs. Ducat uneasily. "Don't know when she'll be home?" cried the youth. "Maybe ye don't know where she is--at this time of night!" "Now don't ye be sassy, Homer," said old Hercules. "That there sarcastic tone of voice ain't for use twixt young folk an' their elders." "Where is she, then? Out to a spree somewheres with the dood?" "That ain't much better, Homer. Sounds to me like yer four hosses an' fifteen head o' cattle was talkin' more'n yer manners. Us Ducats an' McKims be easy-goin', hospitable folks, but I licked both yer gran'pas, an' I licked yer pa, an' for a chew o' baccy I'd up onto my two hind legs an' lam ye a wallop!" "I don't mean to be sassy, Mr. Ducat, an' all I want's a civil answer to a civil question." "An' I give it to ye, Homer. Jim Todhunter went out early this mornin' on a pair of snowshoes an' he ain't come back yet, an' Flora went out a spell before supper to look for 'im an' she ain't got back yet. There be yer civil answer. She be out, an' we can't rightly say aigzactly when she'll be home agin--jist like her ma told ye." "He run, did he? I reckoned that's what he'd do! But what did Flora go huntin' 'im for? Couldn't she leave it to the police?"