“We hadn’t even heard that he was ill,” added Elfreda.
“He wasn’t—that is, not until yesterday when he got kicked in the head by a horse, and that was the last of him. But never so long as I live will I get over the shock,” muttered Stacy. “Don’t talk to me. I guess I want to get away by myself and think,” added Stacy, sobered, deeply affected for the first time in his life.
“We must do something for the family, provided they need it,” suggested Grace. “Any news from our missing horses, Hippy?”
“Not a word. The railroad officials profess to know nothing about them and insist that the car we have is the car that went out with us when we left Denver.”
“Oh, I hope we do not lose our wonderful ponies,” cried Elfreda.
“There’s no possibility of that,” replied Lieutenant Wingate, “We may be delayed here for a few days waiting for the railroad people to straighten out the tangle, so let’s make the best of a bad situation and enjoy ourselves.”
As later events proved, Hippy Wingate was not a true prophet, for the Overlanders were face to face with a mystery that would not be solved in many a day. Their summer’s outing had begun under the most unfavorable conditions of any summer journey they had ever undertaken.
CHAPTER II
THE WIRES BRING BAD NEWS
“The question is, what shall we do for a guide?” said Miss Briggs later in the afternoon, after they had finished the noon meal in their own camp.