He had scanned the prairie till night came, without seeing a sign of her.
His black imagination instantly conceived the worst that Louise might do.

It was not in him ever to have the decent alternative.

He questioned the half-breed woman closely; he savagely interrogated the Chinaman; and then he declared that they lied to him, that they knew more than they said; and when he was unable to bear it any longer, he mounted his horse and galloped over to Slow Down Ranch.

As he went, he kept swearing to himself that Louise had flown thither; and anger made his brain malignant.

He could scarcely frame his words intelligibly when he arrived at Slow Down Ranch.
There he was presently convinced that his worst suspicions were true, for Orlando also had not returned.