His voice trembled as he answered them.

Wade found the trail while Columbine mounted.

As they went slowly down the gentle slope, stepping over the numerous logs fallen across the way, Wade caught out of the tail of his eye a moving object along the outer edge of the aspen grove above them.
It was the figure of a man, skulking behind the trees.

He disappeared.
Wade casually remarked to Columbine that now she could spur the pony and hurry on home.

But Columbine refused.