aps
you'll tell us which way to go and capture him."

"I don't know," said Nic quickly.

The man smiled.

"You needn't disbelieve me," said Nic warmly. "I tell you I haven't the
least idea."

"And if you had, you wouldn't tell us, eh?"

"I'm not going to answer questions," said Nic. "But mind this: if you
find him, I won't have him shot down."

"Then he mustn't shoot at us, sir," said the man, smiling, "so you'd
better send him word if you know where he is. Forward!" he cried, and
the party trotted toward the Wattles, but turned off a little over
half-way there, and to Nic's horror he felt that they had hit upon the
place where he and the convict parted that night just as the storm came
on. And here, after a few words from the head of the little force, two
of the blacks came forward and began to quarter the ground like dogs,
their bodies and heads bent forward, and their eyes searching the grass
with the keenest eagerness.

But it was a long time before either of them showed that he had found
signs.

Then one stopped short, dropped upon his knees, uttered a cry, and his
fellows ran softly up behind him, keeping close to each other, and being
careful not to go near the track or whatever it was that he had found.

Then began a low excited jabbering, during which the mounted men sat
fast, one of them holding the leash which restrained the dogs.

At last the quick discussion ended, and the first black rose from his
knees and made a sign to the police leader to come forward, Nic without
hesitation following and peering over the blacks, who gave way a little,
while the first pointed down to something which Nic expected to find was
a footstep, but which proved to be a big common knife, rusted by
exposure to rain and air.

This was picked up now and handed to the leader, while Nic's eyes
dilated a little, for he felt sure that he had seen the knife before;
and in the convict's hands, when he was eating his cold meat and damper
beneath a tree.

"Yes," he said to himself with a little shiver, "that is his knife. He
must have dropped it here. It had a buckhorn handle, and on the other
side three crosses had been filed pretty deeply." He remembered that
fact well.

Just then the police leader turned round sharply, saw his interested
look, and said, in a decisive, imperative tone of voice:

"You know that knife, sir?"

To gain time the boy held out his hand, drawing his breath hard, and
striving to contro