"Sure they ain't up chamber?"

"No; I was home a good half-hour before Madelon came. There wasn't a
soul in the house, and nobody could have come home since without my
knowing it."

"They didn't come home this noon either," said Eugene.

"Thought you said they'd gone to see to their traps on West
Mountain?" David rejoined.

"Thought they had when they didn't come." Eugene turned impatiently
on Abner. "Where do you think they've gone--what do you mean by
looking so?" he cried.

Abner dug his heel into the snow. "Don't know," he returned, in a
surly voice.

"What do you suspect, then? Good God! can't you speak out?"

Abner's features were heavier than his brother's--his speech and
manner slower. He paused a second, even then; then he turned towards
the house, and spoke, with his face away from them, with a curious
directness and taciturnity. "Didn't go to the traps on West
Mountain," he said, then; "went there myself. They hadn't been
there--no tracks; was home before father was to-night. Louis and
Richard hadn't come. Went down to the village; hadn't been there."

"You don't mean Louis and Richard have run away?" demanded David.