Now the three dismounted in the heart of the camp and still there was no sign of Lynette.
"Anyhow," said Winch, "it's a dog and not a girl we come looking for. Thor'll be here ... if he's alive yet."
"He will be right where I left him." Standing led the way among the big trees, an arm about Billy Winch, hopping at his side the last few steps; they saw him looking in all directions and understood that while he led them toward Thor he was seeking the girl. But they found only the dog lying where he had been struck down; Thor barely able to lift his bloody head, his sight dim, but his dog's intelligence telling him that his master had come back to him; Thor whining weakly. Winch squatted down at the dog's side, become upon the instant an impressive diagnostician.
Standing stood a moment over the two, looking down upon them. Then he turned away, leaving Thor in the skilful hands of Winch and hurrying down to the creek, seeking Lynette. It was possible, he told himself, that she had gone down for a drink; that so near the waterfall she had not heard him calling. So he called again as he went on and looked everywhere for her.
But she was not down by the creek and she did not answer him from the woods. He came back, up into camp, perplexed. Winch was still bending over Thor; he was snapping out brusque orders to Joe for hot water and soap; Standing heard Mexicali Joe's mutterings:
"Por Dios, I no understan'. Somebody hurt one dog an' we wait, an' we look for one girl ... an' all the time I got one meelion dollar gol'-mine down yonder...."
"Shut up," Winch grunted at him. And, seeing Standing coming back: "Say, Timber, we better take this dog home with us right away. We can make a sling of that canvas of yours, tying either end to our saddle horns, making a sort of stretcher; some blankets in it and old Thor on top of 'em. And I'll tell you this: if we get him home alive, and I think we will, I'll keep the life in him."
Thor was whining piteously; Winch shook his head; if only he had his instruments, his antiseptics, and a bottle of chloroform! For here he foresaw such an operation as did not come his way every day.
"Diagnosin' off-hand," Winch was telling the uninterested Joe, "I'd say here's the two important facts: first, old Thor has been beat unmerciful; his head's been whanged bad, but I don't believe the skull's fractured; his left fore leg is busted and he may have a cracked rib. Second and most important, after all that the old devil is alive."
Bruce Standing, still seeking Lynette, more than satisfied to have Thor in Billy Winch's capable hands, turned toward the grotto which he had set apart for Lynette. And thus upon his first discovery. There was a piece of paper tied with a bit of string so that it fluttered gently from a low limb where it was inevitable that it must be seen. He caught it down eagerly. On the scrap of paper were a few pencilled words, written in a girlish-looking hand. At one sweeping glance he read: