“I wondered that, myself, at the time,” he said.
“Surely it shows that they are not here. Besides, it is full early for desperadoes to be abroad.”
“I see all that,” he said. “We owe it to Ramón to be sure about him before we leave. We will turn down here, along the creek, and so circle back to the house. We shall have newspapers enough to light us there. But I don’t think we shall find him on this side of the house.”
“We may find him at the house,” she said.
“If he be not there, and if we do not meet him or learn about him within the next ten minutes, then, Pearl, you and I will go off to Las Palomas, by Paco’s buggy or on foot. Is that agreed?”
“Yes; agreed. We shall have really done all that we can, then.”
“I think we have done a good deal in turning off here for him; but he is a fine old boy.”
“He would do more than this for us,” she said.
“That is true, he would.”
They turned into the path beside the creek. There was plenty of water in the creek and plenty of snags in the water. The current was tearing at the snags with a lashing noise.