Proceeding round by the Hot Springs, the party led by Gadarn made a careful inspection of every cavern, defile, glade, and thicket, returning at evening towards the camp from which they set out, it having been arranged that they were all to meet there and start again to renew the search, in a wider circle, on the following morning.
“No success,” remarked Gadarn sternly, unbuckling his sword and flinging it violently on the ground.
“Not yet, but we may have better fortune tomorrow,” said Beniah.
“Don’t you think the small footprints we saw near the Springs were those of the boy?”
“They may have been.”
“And those that we saw further on, but lost sight of in the rocky ground—did they not look like those of a girl?”
“They certainly did.”
“And yet strangely like to each other,” said the chief.
“Marvellously,” returned Beniah.
A slight sound in Gadarn’s nose caused the Hebrew to look up quickly, but the chief was gazing with stern gravity out at the opening of his booth, where the men of his force could be seen busily at work felling trees, kindling fires, and otherwise preparing for the evening meal.