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unable to move more than a mite. He told me Pittingel was a trickster. He said Pittingel had some of his ships lay off the coast until they were all scrubbed down and aired out, but that wouldn’t fool him. He knew a slaver when he smelled it.”
    â€œSlaver?”
    â€œBlackamoors. From Africa. They buy them from the Arabs. Most of the slave dealers are Arabs and some Portuguese. He sells them in the Indies.
    â€œFolks here don’t take to slaving, so Pittingel lets nobody hereabouts guess, but he’s slaving, all right.”
    We were quiet, each thinking his own thoughts. Yance said suddenly, “Macklin will miss her. According to what Temp had to say and from what I saw, Diana spent most of her time with her pa. She read from his books, and they talked about what they read.”
    Anna Penney had put by a little food for us, and Yance ate, taking time out, here and there, for the cider. We talked a little in low voices about the country around, and then we moved off to a place he’d found, and there we bedded down for the night. Yance was soon asleep.
    A long time after he slept, I lay awake, looking up at the stars through the leaves and listening to the horses tugging at the grass. The woods were quiet, and the town, if such it could be called, was far enough away that we heard nothing. Yet the settlement would be quiet after dark; anyone out after dark would be suspect.
    It was but ten minutes’ walk to the hollow from which the girls had vanished. It was plain enough that many men had been here, for the grass was trampled. It was no more than we expected.
    It was a pleasant enough place, a small meadow surrounded by woods, and on the edge of the woods a small pond of an acre or more. Reeds grew about, and a few marsh marigolds grew here and there. On the pond floated lily pads. On the shore, back at the edge of the trees, there were violets. It must have been an idyllic spot before the searching parties trampled it out of shape.
    The east side of the hollow I dismissed at once, for there was a dense thicket of blackberries there. No man in his right mind would have attempted to get through that mass of thorns when other ways remained.
    We stood still, looking all around, trying to take in the complete scene, trying to picture what must have happened here. Yet as we stood looking and listening,there was a sound of men coming along the path from the settlement. Yance vanished.
    The first I saw was Max Bauer. “Miles away by now,” he was saying. “An army would be needed for the searching, and it is sad, for they were so young. Yet we can try an approach to the Pequots. I am sure that Joseph Pittingel …”
    Deep within the forest, an owl hooted. My eyes were on Bauer, and I saw him pause, head turning slightly toward the sound. It was no owl, and I believed he guessed as much, although the difference was subtle.
    Yance, telling me he had found something.
    Penney left Bauer’s side and crossed the meadow to me. “You will seek them, then?”
    â€œI will. You go home now, and leave it to Yance and to me. Remember, Yance is wed to Temperance, and although we are not of one blood, their children will be. Kinship is a strong thing between us, Penney.”
    â€œSackett, we, Anna and I, we thank you. We—” He choked up, and I turned my eyes from his embarrassment.
    My hand touched his shoulder. “Go, man, go home to your Anna, and trust in us. If she be alive, we will find her.”
    He turned back to them. Macklin hesitated as if he would speak, then turned away with Penney. Bauer lingered. “if there is aught I can do, call upon me, but I fear you waste your time.”
    â€œIt is only a trail,” I said, looking straight at him, “and we have followed many such from boyhood. Where a hound can follow, or an Indian, there we can follow, too.”
    There was a dark look upon him, and I liked it not, but the man nettled me with his