Blent and the constable went off over the ridge. Ruth was so much interested that she stole out to follow them, and Ann Hicks overtook her before she had gotten far up the track.
"Ruth Fielding! whatever are you doing?" demanded the girl from the Montana ranch. "Don't you know it will soon be night? Mrs. Tingley says for you to come back."
"Do you suppose those horrid men will find Jerry?"
"No, I don't," replied Ann, shortly. "And if they do——"
"Oh! you're not as interested in him as I am," sighed Ruth. "I am sure he is honest and that Mr. Blent is telling lies about him. I—I want to see that they don't abuse him if they catch him."
"Abuse him! And he a backwoods boy, with two guns?" snorted Ann. "Why, he wouldn't even let them arrest him, I don't suppose. I wouldn't if I were Jerry."
"But that would be dreadful," sighed Ruth. "Let's go a little farther, Ann."
Dusk was falling, however, and when they got down the far side of the ridge they came to a swift, open water-course. Blent and the constable were evidently "stumped." Blent was snarling at their ill-luck.
"He's took to the water—that's all I know," drawled Lem Daggett, the constable. "Ye see, there ain't a mark in the snow on 'tother side."
"Him wadin' in that ice-cold stream in mid-winter," grunted Blent. "Ain't he a scoundrel?"