The morning was more than half over. The girls were hungry and cold. People at the ranch might be worrying about them. Worst of all, they were not one inch closer to finding the missing horses. Kate stood up in her stirrups to survey the land, looking for a clue they might have missed. Gary did the same. “I hope he doesn’t tell us he found another trail,” Stevie whispered to Christine. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not going anywhere with him again.” “Me neither,” Christine said. “I could forgive him for making a mistake. What I can’t forgive is the fact that all the way back, he kept saying something about how we should all keep our eyes peeled for the trail of hoofprints because that would show where we had gone wrong. And he never once apologized for leading us astray.” “Where we went wrong was bringing him along in the first place,” Stevie whispered. “Look!” Kate said, pointing across the meadow. All the riders followed her gaze to a small dip at the far end of the meadow.
