is own game.
Evan followed him by the swish of his feet in the grass, by the soft
brushing of leaves against his clothes, by the crackle of an occasional
twig under foot, at the same time taking care to betray no similar
sounds himself. The advantage was greatly with the one who followed,
for he knew the other man was there, while the one in front only feared.

Evan's patient stalking was interrupted by the passage of an
automobile. He was obliged to seek cover from the rays of its
headlights. It bowled up the road with a gay party, laughing and
talking, all unsuspecting of the drama being enacted beside the road.
Before it was well by Evan was out again. For a second he had a
glimpse of Charley running like a deer up the road. Then he plunged
into the bushes. Whatever the automobile party thought of this
apparition, they did not stop to investigate.

Evan hastened to the vicinity of the spot where he had seen Charley
disappear. Lying low, he concentrated all the power of his will on the
act of hearing. He was rewarded by the faintest whisper of a sound
from within the woods to the left of the road. It was repeated.
Someone was creeping away in that direction. Charley had left the
road. A sharp anxiety attacked Evan, for his difficulties were now
redoubled.

But when he sought to feel a way into the woods, he discovered a place
near by where it was comparatively open. There was no underbrush. In
fact a road was suggested, a former road perhaps, for it was rough and
tangled underfoot. Evan's heart bounded. Could this be the track that
led direct to the abandoned house? He lost all sound of Charley, but
continued to press forward full of hope.

At intervals he paused to listen, but no sound such as he wished to
hear reached his ears; only the whisper of the night breeze among the
leaves, and the faint far-off hum of the living world. A hundred feet
or so from the highway the wood-track made a turn, and the trees hemmed
him all about. The darkness of the road outside was as twilight to the
blackness that surrounded him here.

Suddenly a sixth sense warned Evan of danger from behind. He whirled
around only to receive the impact of a leaping figure which bore him to
the earth. Dazed by the fall, for a moment he was at a hopeless
disadvantage. The whole weight of the other man was on his chest.
Evan struck up at him ineffectually.

Charley's voice whispered hoarsely: "I'm armed. Give up, or I'll s