The cottage was in darkness, with a great drift of snow against the
door. I knocked with my stick several times, and presently I heard
Jack Paterson's gruff voice demanding who was there.
"It's me, Halcro Ericson. Open the door, Jack."
"Save us all!" he exclaimed, raising the bolt. "What brings ye out
on a night like this, lad? Come inside."
"No; I'm seeking for Thora Kinlay; d'ye ken anything about her;
she's lost!"
"Lost! No; I ken nothing o' her. But wait and I'll see the bairns."
He returned to the door in a few minutes.
"Hilda says that Thora was here yestreen," he said. "But she went
away to Crua Breck when the snow came on so bad."
I was dismayed at his answer, for it seemed to prove to me that
Thora was really lost in the snow.
Paterson offered to continue the search with me, but I advised him
to dress and go to Stromness, and make inquiries in the town, while
I left him and returned to Lyndardy, always searching for
footprints on the snow.
At dawn I resumed the search with my sister Jessie. We first went
to Crua Breck to make sure that Thora had not yet returned. We
heard that Mrs. Kinlay was very ill now, and that Ann could not
leave her.
We returned by the top of the cliffs, where the snow was shallow,
but nothing rewarded our search until we got as far as North
Gaulton, where we observed what appeared to be footprints crossing
our path.
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