“Yes,” said Calvin, “he never whines that way unless he is. That long howl is the hunting dog’s signal that he’s on the job. When he loses the trail he runs back and forth uncertainly.”
“According to that, Sahwah must be very near,” said Gladys. “Are you sure there isn’t any other place in the house, cellar or barn that she could have gotten into, Migwan?”
“Quite sure,” said Migwan, disheartened. “You know yourself the way we finecombed every foot of space.”
“There’s another thing that might have made Pointer lose the trail,” said Nyoda. “Do you remember that he stopped short at the river once? Well, it is my belief that Sahwah ran down to the river and either fell or jumped in and swam away. That would destroy the trail, and Sahwah might be miles away for all we know.” She carefully refrained from suggesting that anything had happened to Sahwah and she might have gone under the water and not come up again, but there was a fear tugging at her heart that Sahwah had dived in and struck her head on something and gone down.
But several of the others must have had much the same thought, for Gladys remarked, without any apparent connection, “You can see the bottom almost all the way down the river.”
And Hinpoha said, “Those tangled roots of trees in the river are nasty things to get into.”
And Calvin set the dog free immediately and untied the rowboat. He and Nyoda rowed down the river while the rest followed along the banks. The stream was clear most of the distance and they could see to the bottom. Here and there were sharp rocks jutting up and casting shadows on the sunlit bottom, and in places the water had washed the dirt away from the roots of trees so that they extended out into the river like many-fingered creatures waiting to seize their prey. But nowhere did they see what they feared. In the lower part of the river, toward the mouth, the water was deeper and had been dredged free of all obstructions, so while it was muddy and they could not see into its depths they knew that nothing was to be found here.
Vaguely relieved and yet dreadfully anxious and mystified they returned to Onoway House. “Do you suppose she was carried away by an automobile or wagon?” asked Migwan. “Does anyone recall seeing anything of the kind going by when we started to play?” Nobody did. While they were discussing this new theory, Pointer, who had been left to run loose while they were searching the river, came running up to them. With much wagging of his tail he went to Calvin and laid something at his feet For a moment they could not make out what it was. Migwan recognized it first.
It was Sahwah’s shoe, completely covered and dripping with black mud.
“Where did you find it, Pointer?” asked Calvin. Pointer wagged his tail in evident satisfaction, but, of course, he could not answer his master’s question.