Others, recognizing him mutely, made way for them to pass.

So an hour slipped by.

Then the child whispered in his ear that there was a cabin on the other side of the creek crossed by the long flume, where she thought he still might be.

Thither they crossed--a toilsome half-hour's walk--but in vain.

They were returning by the ditch at the abutment of the flume, gazing at the lights of the town on the opposite bank, when, suddenly, sharply, a quick report rang out on the clear night air.