the others fell in alongside, ranging themselves
on either side. Thus they journeyed into town -- a
strange cavalcade -- Pat prancing, the mare
drooping, the Mexican visibly pleased, the others
gratified by their unexpected success. In town
they turned into a side street, and there Helen
left them, going off in the direction of her father's
office. When she returned, the Judge was with
her. He read the Mexican a brief but stern lecture
on the law pertaining to the recovery of
lost property, and closed the deal. Whereupon
the wood-hauler unharnessed Pat, bestowed him
smilingly upon Helen, and took himself off, evidently
in quest of another horse, for he headed
straight as a plumb-line for the city pound.

***

Pat was home again. He knew it from many
things -- the white fence, the clean stable, the Mexican
hostler with broom in hand. And though he
was at home where he wanted to be, yet he found
himself filled with vague uneasiness. After a time
he sought to relieve it. He made his way into
the stable, but he found no relief there. He returned
to the corral, and began slowly to circle
inside the fence, but neither did this relieve him.
Finally he took up his old stand in the sunlit
corner, where he fell to listening with ears and
eyes attentive to least sounds. But even this did
not relieve him.

Nor would anything ever relieve him. Never
would he find absolute solace from his inner disquiet.
For what he sought and could not find,

[[124]]

p123 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p124w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p125

v?