look at her, but it stands to reason that a high-toned young lady like
Nellie Wynn don't go trap'sing along the wood like a Pike County tramp.
I took the bet. May be you know if she's here or in Excelsior?"

Mr. Brace felt himself turning pale with eagerness and excitement. But
the near prospect of seeing her presently gave him back his caution, and
he answered truthfully that he had left her in Excelsior, and that in
his two hours' sojourn in Indian Spring he had not met her once. "But,"
he added, with a Californian's reverence for the sanctity of a bet, "I
reckon you'd better make it a stand-off for twenty-four hours, and I'll
find out and let you know." Which, it is only fair to say, he honestly
intended to do.

With a hurried nod of parting, he continued in the direction of the
Woods. When he had satisfied himself that the strangers had entered
the settlement, and would not follow him for further explanation,
he quickened his pace. In half an hour he passed between two of the
gigantic sentinels that guarded the entrance to a trail. Here he paused
to collect his thoughts. The Woods were vast in extent, the trail dim
and uncertain--at times apparently breaking off, or intersecting another
trail as faint as itself. Believing that Miss Nellie had diverged from
the highway only as a momentary excursion into the shade, and that she
would not dare to penetrate its more sombre and unknown recesses, he
kept within sight of the skirting plain. By degrees the sedate influence
of the silent vaults seemed to depress him. The ardor of the chase began
to flag. Under the calm of their dim roof the fever of his veins began
to subside; his pace slackened; he reasoned more deliberately. It was by
no means probable that the young woman in a brown duster was Nellie;
it was not her habitual traveling dress; it was not like her to walk
unattended in the road; there was nothing in her tastes and habits to