"Well, I'll go back to camp and make a search, anyway, Rasco. But what brought you here?"
"I'm lookin' fer my niece, Nellie Winthrop."
And Rasco told of the letter received and of how Nellie was missing and no trace of her could be found anywhere. Dick was almost as much disturbed as Rasco, for he still carried in his mind a picture of the beautiful girl he had saved from Juan Donomez's insults.
"Can the Mexican have waylaid her?" he asked.
"Perhaps," said the man of the plains. "But I've hunted the city high and low."
A short while after the two found themselves in the town once more. Nellie had put up at the Commercial Hotel, and to this hostelry they made their way and entered the office.
"No news of the young lady," said the clerk in charge, who had been interviewed before. "I am quite certain she started for the boomers' camp on horseback."
Rasco heaved a sigh.
"Might as well go back," he said to Dick, then as he saw the boy start he continued: "What's up? Do yer see anything of her?"
"No, Rasco. But look at that man, the fellow sitting down by the corner table in the reading room, he with the brown hat."