They meant that some of the Happy Family had driven cattle this way; which meant that they would have seen little Claude Bennett--that was the Kid's real name, which no one except perfect strangers ever used--they would have seen the Kid or his tracks, if he had ridden down here.
Miss Allen, then, must look farther than this.

She hesitated before three or four feasible outlets to the little flat, and chose the one farthest to the right.

That carried her farther south, and deeper into a maze of gulches and gorges and small, hidden valleys.

She did not stop, but she began to see that it was going to be pure chance, or the guiding hand of a tender Providence, if one ever did find anybody in this horrible jumble.

She had never seen such a mess.