Page:Tomlinson--The rider of the black horse.djvu/169

Rh "Has any one else been here?"

"Nein. I was all alone with Mina. Dirck don't leave me sometimes before."

"If Dirck does not come back for a day or two, what will you do, Mina?"

"If Dirck was not come back?" Mina's blue eyes stared at him in a manner that made Robert's heart ache, and yet from the knowledge he had he was convinced that something must be done, for Dirck was not likely to return soon.

"Yes. You know, Mina, that in days like these no man can tell surely just what he will do. I don't believe anything has happened to Dirck, that is, I don't believe he has been harmed," he added in some confusion, "but one never can tell just how long he 'll be gone from home." He was trying to comfort the woman and at the same time prepare her for what he feared was likely to be a prolonged absence on the part of her husband. A half dozen various explanations for what had occurred had flashed into his mind. Dirck's arrest might have been due to a prearranged plan of Russell or the cowboys. And yet if they had merely wanted to secure him, why had they induced him to depart from his home? It must have been a simple matter to seize him, and as