"Gone!" repeated Aldous again.
MacDonald nodded.
"And that means——"
"That Culver Rann ain't lost any time in gettin' under way for the gold," said Donald. "DeBar is with him, an' probably the woman. Likewise three cut-throats to fill the other saddles. They've gone prepared to fight."
"And Quade?"
Old Donald hunched his shoulders, and suddenly John's face grew dark and hard.
"I understand," he spoke, half under his breath. "Quade has disappeared—but he isn't with Culver Rann. He wants us to believe he has gone. He wants to throw us off our guard. But he's watching, and waiting—somewhere—like a hawk, to swoop down on Joanne! He——"
"That's it!" broke in MacDonald hoarsely. "That's it, Johnny! It's his old trick—his old trick with women. There's a hunderd men who've got to do his bidding—do it 'r get out of the mountains—an' we've got to watch Joanne. We have, Johnny! If she should disappear——"
Aldous waited.
"You'd never find her again, so 'elp me God, you wouldn't, Johnny!" he finished.