Chapter X

The Stranger Again

Meantime, Helen was becoming desperate
over her loss. Unwilling to accept the theory
of her household, which was that Pat had been
stolen by a band of organized thieves and ere
this was well out of the neighborhood and probably
the county, she had held firmly to her original
idea, _viz._, that the horse was in the possession
of his rightful owners, and so could not be far out
of the community. Therefore, the morning following
his disappearance, having with sober reflection
lightened within her the seriousness of it all, she
had set out in confident search for him, mounted
on her brown saddler. But though she had combed
the town and the trails around the town, quietly
interviewing all such teamsters and horsemen as
might by any chance know something about it,
yet in answer to her persistent inquiries all she had
received was a blank shake of the head or an earnest
expression of willingness to assist her. So,
because she had continued her search for three
days without success, inquiring and peering into
every nook and corner of the community, she
finally had come to regard her quest as hopeless,

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v?