Mr.
Gladwyne figured on getting mighty hungry."

Lisle nodded.

"Put me up enough bread and fish for two of us for two days."

He moved away with Nasmyth, and they had left the fire behind when he
spoke, his voice hoarse with anger.

"Gladwyne's gone to the cache! He's got half a day's clear start of us
and he knows the country. It's pretty open and he'll make quite a good
pace on a straight trail, while the river bends. Get the stuff I asked
for while I give the others a few instructions."

"You mean to start after him at once?"

"As soon as you're ready," Lisle said shortly.

He turned back toward where the others were sitting waiting for supper.

"As Gladwyne hasn't turned up, Nasmyth and I are going to look for him,"
he announced. "There's nothing to be alarmed about, but it's quite likely
we may not be back in the morning. If we don't turn up by noon, you had
better start down-river and we'll pick you up farther on. I don't want to
waste another day."

"Do you think he has got lost altogether?" Millicent asked anxiously.

"No," answered Lisle, in a reassuring manner. "Still, some of these
ridges are bad to climb and quite a lot of things may happen to delay
him."

He called to a packer and gave him definite orders to take the party
down-river and wait at a spot agreed upon; and a few minutes later he and
Nasmyth left the camp.

Shortly afterward Batley came in.

"Where are the others?" he asked.

They told him and he looked thoughtful.

"So Lisle started at once! Which way did he and Nasmyth go?"

"Up the ridge behind us, but they turned down-stream when they reached
the top," Carew replied.

Batley scented a mystery.

"Well," he said, "I think I'll go after them; I might be useful. Of
course, you'll start to-morrow as Lisle told you, and if I'm not back by
then, I'll follow the river to the rendezvous he mentioned."

He disappeared, as did Crestwick, who came in for supper later on, and as
the packers had pitched their tent lower down, there was now only Carew
left with the women in camp. They were all a little uneasy as dusk grew
near; the haste with which the men had set out one after another struck
them as ominous. Bella's mind was unusually active, for she had promptly
decided that there was something behind all this, and when at last
Millicent strolled away from the others she followed her to the edge of
the water. A ridge of rock cut them off from view of the camp and though
she fanc