5. In
passing the place soon after daybreak they had noticed blood on the snow
at the roadside. The school-room door was half open and they entered.
Blood in great quantities smeared the floor near the stove, but there
was no sign of humanity, alive or dead. Miss Banks's handkerchief was
found on the floor saturated.
Moreover, the school-teacher was missing. She had not returned to the
home of Mrs. Holabird the night before. To make the horror all the more
ghastly, Anderson Crow, hastening to the schoolhouse, positively
identified the blood as that of Miss Banks.
CHAPTER XIII
A Tinkletown Sensation
Sensations came thick and fast in Tinkletown during the next few hours.
Investigation proved that 'Rast Little was nowhere to be found. He had
not returned to his home after the spelling-bee, nor had he been seen
since. Mrs. Holabird passed him in the road on her way home in the
"bob-sled." In response to her command to "climb in" he sullenly said he
was going to walk home by a "short cut" through the woods. A farmer had
seen the stylish Farnsworth sleigh driving north furiously at half-past
eleven, the occupants huddled in a bunch as if to protect themselves
from the biting air. The witness was not able to tell "which was which"
in the sleigh, but he added interest to the situation by solemnly
asserting that one of the persons in the rear seat was "bundled up" more
than the rest, and evidently was unable to sit erect.
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