The father started toward the stairs, but Shoshone took him grimly but gently, saying:
“Wait a minute, pardner. When you want to trap a fox, you must stop up all the holes. Angel, guard this door; you, young man, take this pistol. Go out through the back and watch there. I’ll go behind the house. There is a window there that opens out upon the rocks. You, her father, go on upstairs and open the front door. If you can’t open it, break it in! Meantime I’ll have them covered from the window. Now go, and be careful!”
At the word of command, Bennie and the Angel took their positions, while Morris went up the stairs, his heart beating to suffocation.
When he reached the landing he saw that the door to the back room was open, but that of the front was closed. A hasty glance showed that the back room was empty. He knocked at the door, crying:
“Dora! Dora! it is de fader! Dora! Dora! I am coming!”
There was no reply, and those downstairs heard a mighty crash, as though the door had been burst open by one blow! Then an anguished cry:
“Dora! she is gone! De room is empty! Mein Gott! dey haf gone!”
When the others reached the room, the bereft father was kneeling, sobbing by the little table where lay a bit of blue ribbon.
“Dora! Dora!” he sobbed.