6

Donald leaded down instantly from the seat of the rake and
hurried to his mother's side}

"Why mom! What ails you? You ain't hurt, are you mom?"

A guttural animal like moan was the only reply of the
dumb womane Then as the two men stared at each other, like.
a miracle, out of the utter stillness of the evening, again
arose the long weird wailing of the coyote in the bog lands;
As if the cry were a whip that lashed her lips into coherent
utterance, at last she articulated:

"Baby! Lost!"

Her arm described a vague motion toward the north, and

the farmer's wife sank downward into darkness.

That night no less than fourteen searching parties spread
out in a wide fanlike circle that covered nearly every inch
of the land over a radius of five miles from the Merritt ranch.
With lantern and gun, on horse and afoot, they searched the
night through fun the missing child.

To the south stretched for miles the grain_lands, long
roads and trails dividing the separate farms and here and there
between a low slough or_small lake;

East were grazing lands, this dry year overpastured; Half
a municipality of open range, made up of hummocks and grey hills,
rocky and bare. Sheep lands for the most part; ‘
‘ Vest were fine farms, both grain and cattle, and still

farther west the land was wooded where it approached the foot-