“As Henry had in a way handed over to me his responsibility for the boy, and as I wanted to transfer the money, I waited for three weeks at the ranch, hoping he would turn up again.  I saw the Thorwald woman, but she protested that she did not know where he was.  And I made two attempts to see and warn Jud Clark, but failed both times.  Then one night the Thorwald woman came in, looking like a ghost, and admitted that Hines had been hiding in the mountains since Henry’s death, that he insisted he had killed him, and that he blamed Jud Clark for that, and for all the rest of his troubles.  She was afraid he would kill Clark.  The three of us, the two men at the ranch and myself, prepared to go into the mountains and hunt for him, before he got snowed in.

“Then came the shooting at the Clark place, and I rode over that night in a howling storm and helped the coroner and a Norada doctor in the examination.  All the evidence was against Clark, especially his running away.  But I happened on Hattie Thorwald outside on a verandah—­she’d been working at the house—­and I didn’t need any conversation to tell me what she thought.  All she said was: 

“He didn’t do it, doctor.  He’s still in the mountains.”

“He’s been here to-night, Hattie, and you know it.  He shot the wrong man.”

“But she swore he hadn’t been, and at the end I didn’t know.  I’ll say right now that I don’t know.  But I’ll say, too, that I believe that is what happened, and that Hines probably stayed hidden that night on Hattie Thorwald’s place.  I went there the next day, but she denied it all, and said he was still in the mountains.  She carried on about the blizzard and his being frozen to death, until I began to think she was telling the truth.

“The next day I did what only a tenderfoot would do, started into the mountains alone.  Bill and Jake were out with a posse after Clark, and I packed up some food and started.  I’ll not go into the details of that trip.  I went in from the Dry River Canyon, and I guess I faced death a dozen times the first day.  I had a map, but I lost myself in six hours.  I had food and blankets and an axe along, and I built a shelter and stayed there overnight.  I had to cut up one of my blankets the next morning and tie up the horse’s feet, so he wouldn’t sink too deep in the snow.  But it stayed cold and the snow hardened, and we got along better after that.

“I’d have turned back more than once, but I thought I’d meet up with some of the sheriff’s party.  I didn’t do that, but I stumbled on a trail on the third day, toward evening.  It was the trail made by John Donaldson, as I learned later.  I followed it, but I concluded after a while that whoever made it was lost, too.  It seemed to be going in a circle.  I was in bad shape and had frozen a part of my right hand, when I saw a cabin, and there was smoke coming out of the chimney.”