ng would venture close to the fresh man smell. Still, it's
natural to close up when you go away."

"What do you think?" she asked tremulously.

The sight of her wide, strained eyes, and the little teeth pressed into
her lower lip, were inexpressibly painful to him. Clearly it was too
much to ask of the high-strung woman, after she had nerved herself up to
the ordeal, to go on waiting indefinitely in suspense.

"There are dozens of natural explanations," he said quickly. "Very
likely he's just gone into the bush to hunt for his dinner."

Her hand involuntarily went to her breast. "I feel," she whispered, "as
if there were something dreadfully--dreadfully wrong."

Stonor went outside and lustily holloaed. He received no answer.

It was impossible for them to sit still while they waited. Having seen
everything in the house, they walked about outside. Off to the left
Imbrie had painstakingly cleared a little garden. Strange it was to see
the familiar potato, onion, turnip and cabbage sprouting in orderly rows
beside the unexplored river.

Time passed. From a sense of duty they prepared a meal on the shore, and
made a pretence of eating it, each for the other's benefit. Stonor did
his best to keep up Clare's spirits, while at the same time his own
mystification was growing. For in circling the shack he could find no
fresh track anywhere into the bush. Tracks there were in plenty, where
the man had gone for wood, or to hunt perhaps, but all more than
twenty-four hours old. To be sure, there was the river, but it was not
likely he had still a third canoe: and if he had gone up the river, how
could they have missed him? As for going down, no canoe could live in
that rapid, Stonor was sure; moreover, he supposed the falls were at the
foot of it.

Another thing; both his shot-gun and his rifle were leaning against the
fireplace. He might have another gun, but it was not likely. As the
hours passed, and the man neither returned nor answered Stonor's
frequent shouts, the policeman began to wonder if an accident could have
occurred to him. But he had certainly been alive and well within a
half-hour of their arrival, and it seemed too fortuitous a circumstance
that anything should have happened just at that juncture. A more
probable explanation was that the man had seen them coming, and had
reasons of his own for wishing to keep out of the way. After all, Stonor
had no precise knowledge of the situation existing between Imbri