But at last they joined Clary at the fire, and the three, while they
continued to carry on the interrupted cooking of their captives,
discussed ways and means of returning to La Paz, and it was decided to
send the setter with a message. A note was pencilled on a page of
Frank's diary, attached to Vic's collar, and she was taken to the
river-bank and given a stick, with orders to deliver it to her master.
With but little hesitation she plunged into the murky current, and
soon disappeared in the darkness in the direction of the other shore.
While the boy sergeants were going through these adventures I remained
in La Paz. At retreat and tattoo roll-calls Corporal Duffey had
reported Private Clary absent, adding the words "and unaccounted for,"
and at Mr. Gray's table the boys were absent from supper.
At first I gave myself no anxiety over the absentees, but at midnight,
becoming alarmed, I began a search for them. I soon learned that Henry
had been seen to paddle out of the lagoon on a Mojave _balsa_,
accompanied by Vic, and that Frank and Clary had gone quail-shooting.
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