"I found the place where it had been."
"Where it had been!"
"There wasn't a single vestige of it left. That whole pocket, I knew it well, had been swept clean by the flood."
"But Kirkby, and Mrs. Maitland and—"
"They weren't there."
"Did you search for them?"
"Certainly."
"But they can't have been drowned," she exclaimed piteously.
"Of course not," he began reassuringly. "Kirkby is a veteran of these mountains and—"
"But do you know him?" queried the girl in great surprise.