"Bring me my hat, Aggie. I am going to jump on Hector, and look for Elsie. I think he will take me to her. She must have got off him of her own accord. She was not thrown. The bridle is tied through the stirrup just in the way she always ties it. She must have got off to rest, and something startled him, and he must have run away and left her. Thank God, she is alive! She must be making her way home. She may have sprained her foot, and is coming slowly. We'll see her soon, I feel sure."
Maggie jumped on the horse, and Aggie tied her hat so as to keep it from flying away.
"Take me to her, good Hector, and be off," said Maggie. He bounded away, and they were soon a dot in the distance.
She was barely out of sight when Alec Keryle rode up with four men. Their horses were in a lather of foam with hard riding.
"What news, Aggie?"
"None, Mr. Keryle. They've all been out searching since last night. Her horse has just come home. Miss Maggie has jumped on him, and has gone out too. She thinks the horse will take her to where Miss McLean was when he left her. Miss Maggie has only a minute ago passed through that gap in the ranges. If you ride fast you may overtake her."
He touched his horse with the spur, and galloped away in Maggie's track, his four men following as quickly as they could.
Maggie's horse went on steadily, and steered for the hill he had climbed the day before; but he avoided the steepest part, and went up an easy place which he had discovered when going home. He walked up and down the tableland as if looking for something. His rider was passive, and let him do as he pleased. He soon came to where Elsie had lain down, and he sniffed the ground. Maggie saw that the moss had been disturbed. "Good Hector, we are on the track," she said. Then the horse, with his nose held low, went on for half a mile, and suddenly stopped at a clump of bushes. Maggie gave a great cry, and jumped off. Her sister lay, pale as death, among the bushes. She breathed! her pulse beat! "Thank God, I have found her!"
Elsie muttered a few words, and Maggie stooped to listen. She distinctly heard her say, "Oh, Alec! I'm sorry. Why did you go away?"