"Empty, have you seen my Jean?" Joe eagerly enquired.
"Sure. She's out on the hills. I was jist hustlin' to tell ye."
"On the hills!" Joe repeated. "What is she doing but there?"
"Search me! I don't know what she's doin' there, an' I guess she doesn't."
"W-what do you mean?" There was an anxious note in the old man's voice.
"Well, she's been wanderin' round there fer some time now, talkin' to herself strange like, an' singin'. She gives me the shivers, that's what she does. It ain't nat'ral fer Jean to be actin' that way. Ye'd better come an' see fer yerself."
Silently the two men followed Empty across the field, and up the side of a hill. At the top was a fence, and as they came to this, Empty paused and peered cautiously through the rails, and held up a warning finger.
"S-s-h," he whispered. "There she is now. Ye kin jist see her. She's comin' this way. Listen; she's singin'!"
This hill had been used as a sheep pasture for many years. It was a desolate place, devoid of trees, and full of stones. Looking across this barren waste, Douglas was soon able to detect the form of a woman silhouetted against the sky. Yes, she was singing, and he was able to recognise the words:
"Truer love can never be;
Will ye no come back to me?"