A search of the house revealed no bodies. There was considerable blood everywhere but no sign of any people. A pistol appeared to have been flung into one corner of the room. On examination, it was found to have been fired repeatedly, until it ran out of ammunition. A trail, not made of footprints or horseshoe marks, led into the pond. There was no sign of where whatever had made the footprints emerged again from the pond.

“We didn’t bring any dynamite,” Schroeder said, “because it might’ve been interesting to toss a few sticks of dynamite into the pond, inside bottles to keep them dry until they went off, and see if anything floated to the surface. I don’t expect anything to happen, but that’s the only idea I have.”

“That’s more ideas than I had,” Winston said. “We can confirm the house was wrecked up, four people are missing, but there’s no explanation. Let’s do a broader circuit around the far side of the pond out as far as we can go in the fields without getting into the rocks, and see if we find anything else.”

The search was fruitless. Other than the marks leading to the pond, which McTavish proposed could’ve been something walking one way and then the other, there was nothing to be seen. One entire side of the pond was up against a rocky shelf, across which a small army could have marched without leaving a trail. That appeared to be how the mystery assailants had come and gone.

“Okay,” Cooper said, “time to call it a day here, so I get to go back and write another report saying there are four more missing bodies, but no explanation for what might’ve occurred. And we really didn’t see anything inside that house that counted as a clue.”

Winston Cooper stared at the wall clock. It was not quite nine in the evening. The sun had set. Soon enough the night watch would show up and he could head off to bed. Covering for Grandpa while he was now off in Phoenix listening to the Governor by-and-by became exhausting even with an afternoon nap.

The telephone rang. Sergeant Madison lifted the receiver. “Prescott Sheriff’s Department, Madison speaking.”

“Melanie Hayes, Northcote West Corral. I have multiple large carnivores chasing our horses. Not enough light to identify. They shrugged off pistol fire, and I’m short of rifle ammunition. Please send men and heavy weapons.”