Then, under Mr.Crow's direction, they searched the wood piles, the woods, and the fields for many rods in all directions.

At noon they congregated at the schoolhouse.

Alf Reesling was there.
"Find it ?" said he thickly, with a cunning leer.

He had been drinking.
Anderson was tempted to club him half to death, but instead he sent him home with Joe Perkins, refusing absolutely to hear what the town drunkard had to say.
"Well, you'll wish you'd listened to me," ominously hiccoughed Alf; and then, as a parting shot, "I wouldn't tell you now fer eighteen dollars cash.

You c'n go to thunder!" It was _lese majeste_, but the crowd did nothing worse than stare at the offender.
Before starting off on the trail of the big sleigh, Anderson sent this message by wire to the lawyers in Chicago: "_I have found the girl you want, but the body is lost.