Thinking of Orella put Dave in mind of his mission, and he quickly thrust his hand into his pocket to see if the envelope Mr. Obray had given him to deliver was safe.
The next instant his heart almost stopped beating. The envelope was gone!
Frantically he searched one pocket after another; and then he made another discovery equally dismaying. Not only was the envelope the construction camp manager had given him missing, but likewise the letters he had received from Jessie and his Uncle Dunston, and also his pocketbook which had contained upward of forty dollars.
CHAPTER VIII
WHAT WAS MISSING
“Gone!”
This was the one word which burst from Dave’s lips as he searched one pocket after another in rapid succession. Then he arose to his feet, to hurry up and down the trail in the vicinity where the encounter with Jasniff had occurred. But though he looked everywhere, not a trace of the documents, the letters, or his pocketbook could be found.
An examination showed that his coat was torn in several places and that the side of one of the pockets had likewise been rent. But whether this damage had been caused by the fight or when he had rolled down over the rocks, he could not determine.
“I guess I got pretty well mussed up in the fight, and the fall down the rocks finished the job,” he muttered to himself.
He was much disheartened, and felt bitter against Nick Jasniff. Whether the rascal had picked up the articles lost and made off with them was, however, a question.
“If I lost them up here on the trail he probably took them,” Dave reasoned. “But if they fell out of my pockets when I rolled down the rocks and over the cliff, they must be scattered somewhere between here and the place where I landed in the bushes.”