Part 46 (2/2)
Curtis considered this.
”Well,” he said, ”I guess you can't do much harm, and Wandle may not have gone by the lake after all. You can pick up Stanton if you find out anything, and I'll try to join you from one of the stations along the line.”
They mounted, and on reaching the trail forks where they must separate, Prescott turned to Curtis.
”Aren't you afraid of letting me out of your sight?” he asked.
”No, sir,” Curtis answered with a smile. ”You're not quite so important to us now; and I'm not running much risk, anyway, considering the horse you've got.”
CHAPTER XXVII
STARTLING NEWS
It was noon on the day after Wandle's flight, and Jernyngham was sitting with his friends in a room of the Leslie homestead when Muriel, looking out of the window, saw Prescott's hired man ride up at a gallop. His haste and his anxious expression when he dismounted alarmed her, but her companions had not noticed him, and she waited, listening to the murmur of voices that presently reached her from an adjoining room. They ceased in a few minutes, she saw the man ride away as fast as he had come, and soon afterward Leslie opened the door. He was a talkative person and looked as if he had something of importance to relate.
”Svendsen has been over to ask if I saw Prescott when I was in at the settlement yesterday,” he said. ”When I told him that I hadn't, he seemed mighty disturbed.”
Muriel's heart throbbed painfully, but she waited for one of the others to speak, and Jernyngham, laying down his paper, glanced up sharply.
”Why?” he asked.
This was all the encouragement Leslie needed.
”I'll tell you, so far as I've got the hang of the thing; I thought you'd like to know. It seems Prescott has been away somewhere for a few days and should have got home last night. He came in on the train in the evening, and Harper drove him out and dropped him at Wandle's trail; Prescott said he wanted to see the man. Well, he didn't get home, and Svendsen, who'd been to Harper's this morning, found Wandle gone and three of his horses missing. Then he found out from Watson, who stayed at the hotel last night, that Curtis rode in on a played-out horse before it was light, and kept the night operator busy for a while with the wires.
Seems to me the thing has a curious look.”
For a moment or two n.o.body spoke. Muriel felt dismayed by the news, and she glanced at the others, trying to read their thoughts. Colston looked troubled, Gertrude's face was hard and stamped with a kind of cruel satisfaction, Jernyngham was very grim.
”Is that all you know about the matter?” Jernyngham asked.
”I guess so,” Leslie answered. ”Still, Svendsen did allow he thought he'd seen Stanton hanging about the homestead yesterday evening.”
”Thank you,” said Jernyngham with cold politeness. ”I'll want the team after dinner.”
Seeing no excuse for remaining, the rancher went out, and Jernyngham turned to the others. His brows were knitted and his eyes gleamed ominously.
”There's no mystery about the matter; the man has gone for good,” he said. ”In spite of the a.s.surances they gave me, these fools of police have let him slip through their fingers. That he saw Wandle before he bolted proves collusion between them. It was a thing I half suspected, but Curtis, of course, did not agree with me.”
Muriel was recovering from the shock. Though things looked very bad, she could not believe that Prescott had run away. He had promised to call on Curtis and her confidence in him was unshaken.
”He went away by train a day or two ago, and if he had had anything to fear, he would have made his escape then,” she said.
Mrs. Colston cast a warning glance at her, as if begging her to say nothing more, but Jernyngham curtly answered her remark.
”The man probably wanted to sell his property where it would excite less notice than at Sebastian. Then I suppose he found it needful to see his confederate.”
<script>