She had strayed so far into the mountains that she was lost.

Fortunately, she was warmly dressed at the time, but exposed as she must be to the wintry winds and cold, she could not hold out until morning unless rescued very soon.
Harvey was stricken with an anguish such as he had never known before, but he knew that not a minute was to be lost.

Dollie must be found at once or it would be too late.

It added a poignancy to his woe to know that in coming down the mountain path, he must have passed close to her, who was in sore need of the help he was eager to give.
"Have you made no search for her ?" he asked.
"I could not believe she would not come back until it began to grow dark.

I thought she could not be far away; Maggie and I hunted through the village, inquiring of every one whom we saw; many of the people were kind, and two or three have gone to hunt for her; I started to do so, but did not go far, when I was sure she had come back while I was away, and I hurried home only to find she was not here." "Are you sure any one is looking for her ?" "There are several." "Well," said Harvey, impatient with the vacillation shown by his aunt, "I shall not come back until she is found." His hand was on the knob of the door when his distressed relative sprang to her feet.
"Harvey;" she said in a wild, scared manner, "shall I tell you what I believe ?" "Of course." "Dollie did not lose herself: some of those awful men did it." "Do you mean the strikers ?" "Yes; they have taken her away to spite you." "Impossible!" exclaimed the young man, passing out the door and striding up the single street that ran through the village.
But though unwilling to confess it to himself, the same shocking suspicion had come to him at the moment he learned that Dollie was lost.