feet without assistance and stand trembling, looking
about for him.

Neither he nor the animal seemed to be seriously injured, but he felt
incapable of mounting and waited a while, wondering what he should do. He
was tired out and was sensible of a depressing lassitude, the result of
nervous strain. Then, as the bitter cold nipped him, a reaction set in.
Wandle, he remembered, had with detestable cunning plotted to ruin him;
it might be difficult to clear himself unless the man were arrested. For
the sake of the girl who had maintained his innocence with steadfast
faith, the suspicion under which he labored must be dispelled. Prescott
was seized by a fit of fury against his betrayer. Nerved by it, he got
into the saddle and rode on, urging the Clydesdale savagely through the
wood.

Half an hour later he heard a measured drumming sound and Stanton's voice
answered his hail. Then a horseman rode out of a gap in the trees and
pulled up near him.

"I suppose you have seen nothing of Wandle?" Prescott asked.

"Not a sign," said Stanton shortly. "Have you?"

Prescott raised his hand and sat listening while he struggled with his
rage and disappointment. The night was still; he thought he would hear
any sound there might be a long distance off, but nothing broke the
silence.

"I learned from a chopper that I wasn't far behind him, and I half
expected you would have headed him off. I can't think he has passed this
spot."

"We'll try to fix that."

Stanton dismounted and struck several matches. The flame burned steadily,
but it showed none of the marks for which he searched the beaten snow
with practised eyes.

"No," he said, "I'd stake a month's pay that the fellow's not ahead."

They looked at each other, frankly puzzled; and then Prescott broke out
angrily:

"Where can the blasted rustler be?"

"Couldn't have left the bluffs on my side without my seeing him, and if
he'd doubled back on his tracks, you'd have met him," Curtis remarked.

"He's not likely to be hiding in the woods. He'd freeze without a proper
outfit, which he can't have got."

They grappled with the problem in silence for a minute or two.

"We'll take the back trail," Stanton decided. "The fellow must have
broken out for open country on your side. I guess he knows where there's
a homestead where he might find a team."

Prescott agreed, and they rode off wearily the way he had come, shivering
with the cold that had seized them while they wai