of this plan, and they climbed down
into the road from opposite sides and took out the wheelers. To be
sure these animals were heavy, and not of the best sort for escaping
on, but better than walking; and timeliness and discretion can do a
great deal. So in a little while the driver and his stage were gone
on their way, the friend with the two horses had disappeared in the
wood, and the road was altogether lonely.

[Illustration: THE SHOT-GUN MESSENGER]

The sheriff's brain was hard at work, and he made no protest now as he
walked along, passive in the company of the miners and their prisoner.
The prisoner had said all that he had to say, and his man's firmness,
which the first shock and amazement had wrenched from him, had come to
his help again, bringing a certain shame at having let his reserve and
bearing fall to pieces, and at having made himself a show; so he spoke
no more than his grim captors did, as they took him swiftly through the
wood. The sheriff was glad it was some miles they had to go; for though
they went very fast, the distance and the time, and even the becoming
tired in body, might incline their minds to more deliberation. He could
think yet of nothing new to urge. He had seen and heard only the same
things that all had, and his present hopes lay upon the Gap and what
more might have come to light there since his departure. He looked at
Drylyn, but the miner's serious and massive face gave him no suggestion;
and the sheriff's reason again destroyed the germ of suspicion that
something plainly against reason had several times put in his thoughts.
Yet it stuck with him that they had hold of the wrong man.

When they reached the Gap, and he found the people there as he had left
them, and things the same way, with nothing new turned up to help his
theory, the sheriff once more looked round; but Drylyn was not in the
crowd. He had gone, they told him, to look at _her_; he had set a heap
of store by her, they repeated.

"A heap of store," said the sheriff, thinking. "Where is she now?"

"On her bed," said a woman, "same as ever, only we've fixed her up
some."

"Then I'll take a look at her--and him. You boys won't do anything till
I come back, will you?"

"Why, if ye're so anxious to see us do it, sheriff," said the chatty
neighbor, "I guess we can wait that long fer ye."

The officer walked to the tent. Drylyn was standing over the body, quiet
and dumb. He was safe for the present, the sheriff k