Margaret ran along the road so swiftly that Renmark had some trouble in keeping pace with her. She turned at the side road, and sped up the gentle ascent to the spot where the volunteers had crossed it.
“Here is the place,” said Renmark.
“He could not have been hit in the field,” she cried breathlessly, “for then he might have reached the house at the corner without climbing a fence. If he was badly hurt, he would have been here. Did you search this field?”
“Every bit of it. He is not here.”
“Then it must have happened after he crossed the road and the second fence. Did you see the battle?”
“Yes.”
“Did the Fenians cross the field after the volunteers?”
“No; they did not leave the woods.”
“Then, if he was struck, it could not have been far from the other side of the second fence. He would be the last to retreat; and that is why the others did not see him,” said the girl, with confident pride in her brother’s courage.
They crossed the first fence; the road, and the second fence, the girl walking ahead for a few paces. She stopped, and leaned for a moment against a tree. “It must have been about here,” she said in a voice hardly audible. “Have you searched on this side?”