"Not taken?"
"Not a gun!" replied the boy, with a flash. Anna reflected it, but her tone did not change:
"There are four men, you know, whom we five--"
"Yes."
"Which of them is the bad news about?"
"All four," murmured the youth. His eyes swam. His hat went under the stump of his lost arm and he proffered the bit of writing. Idlers were staring. "Take that with you," he said. "They were all four together and they're only--"
The carriage was turning, but the fair cluster bent keenly toward him. "Only what?" they cried.
"Missing."