The woman came into the room just then. She looked greatly distressed, though evidently trying hard to control her feelings.
Questions that met with ready replies soon put them in possession of such facts as were at her disposal. The child was a small boy named Caleb, not over six years of age, though hardy enough. He had never wandered off before, so that they suspected something unusual must have tempted him on this occasion.
It had not been until ten o’clock that he was missed. Then the mother and the other children looked high and low for him without avail. Finally, becoming anxious, she had sent out into the fields where her husband was working, and soon everybody around the region had enlisted in the hunt.
As the river ran not more than a quarter of a mile away from the Holcomb home, there were grave fears lest the child might have wandered that way. Some were even looking along the bank with the idea that the body would be cast ashore; others, including the now frenzied father, were engaged in scouring the woods, calling out the name of the little fellow from time to time, and then stopping to learn if a feeble answer came in reply to their hails.
Rob knew that it might mean a long and difficult hunt. He also understood what an advantage it always was to be prepared for such things.
“I saw one of those hand electric torches in your den, Ralph,” he went on to say in his energetic fashion. “Do you know whether it has a working battery in it?”
“To be sure it has,” he was told. “I only brought it home with me last week when I was down in the town, and haven’t used it an hour since.”
“I’m glad to know it. Please fetch it along,” Rob told him. “Torches may be all very well as a makeshift, but give me such a light as yours when you want to look into out of the way places. Besides, in trailing on a dark night they can’t be equaled. I’ve used one many a time.”
Ralph instantly realized that perhaps these scout visitors of his might come in very handy in an emergency like this. That mention of “trailing” gave him an insight into the probable plan of campaign which Rob was likely to institute; and so Ralph made up his mind that it would be a good thing to hand the manipulation of affairs over to the boy in khaki who seemed to know just what to do, as well as how to do it.
They lost little time in getting ready. Ralph soon had the car at the door, and they commenced to pile in, after Mrs. Holcomb had been tucked away in the capacious rear seat. Rob noticed with more or less interest that Peleg insisted on joining the party, as though just as eager to have a hand in finding the lost boy as any of them.