be
maintained between husband and wife. He and Eustace had evidently ridden
in during the evening with the intention of advising Mrs. Eustace of the
successful flight of her husband. Hesitating to approach the bank, until
he was certain the way was clear, Eustace had given the note to his
companion to deliver. Harding's vision of the face at the window
completed the picture. The man had crept up to the window of the room
where it was probably arranged Mrs. Eustace was to wait. So long as any
other person who might have been in the room occupied the chair Mrs.
Eustace placed, the shadow on the blind would warn the visitor that the
coast was not clear. It was due to the fact that Harding had noticed the
shadow and had moved to another chair that the man had so nearly been
captured.

What had followed was equally clear to Durham's mind.

Directly he found he was discovered the man had run to his horse and,
together with his companion, had galloped off, too quickly to allow him
either to explain how he had failed to deliver the message or to hand it
back to Eustace. It was most probably he who had come down with his
horse at the edge of the depression, by which time the letter would have
passed completely from his mind and so he would not notice its loss.
Under the circumstances it was very unlikely he would tell the truth to
his companion, but would rather leave Eustace under the impression that
the letter had been put where Mrs. Eustace would find it. Sooner or
later, therefore, Eustace would make another attempt to communicate with
his wife. If he were not captured otherwise there would be every hope of
securing him by keeping a close watch upon her.

With the letter in his pocket Durham remounted his horse and continued
to follow the track. It led him into the broken country which formed the
outlying spurs of the range, and continued along a narrow depression
lying between two ridges. The trees grew closer together in the shelter
of the little valley, and the track turned at right angles and continued
up the side of one of the ridges.

The surface became more rocky and Durham had to watch closely for the
hoof-prints as he gradually ascended to the top. For a time the track
ran along the summit and then turned down the other slope, following the
course of what, in the rainy season, would be a small rivulet. This
again turned where it met the bed of a larger stream and Durham set his
horse at a canter as he saw, dist