With ejaculations of disappointment they began to question the occupants of the nearby tents.
One after another declared that they had not seen Consollas, explaining that they had either followed the crowd to see the posse start and had only just returned or had been too busy to notice.
In despair, the searchers gave up the task, going back to where they had left their mounts when a little girl ran up.
"I seen the man," she piped in her excited, childish voice, "he got up jes' as the mens rode away. He looked roun' 's though he was lost an' rubbed his head an' felt of his nose. He said an awful word an' got up. I was standin' watchin' him an' when he seen me, he asked what had happened. When I tole him he said some more bad words an' runned into the woods."
By the time the little girl had finished her story she was the centre of an excited throng.
"That settles all chance of getting the sneak for the present," declared the leader of the squad of man-hunters. "All we can do is to wait till he comes back—if he ever does, which I doubt."
"What's the trouble? Tell us what he did!" clamoured the crowd.
"You might as well, Jeff," chorused several of the posse.
Mounting his horse, that he might the better be heard, the man quickly narrated the meeting with the vanished merchant's son, his actions, the appearance of the roan and Fred's confession.