Gladwyne took the packer with him and headed back at first, to
divert suspicion. It would be easy enough to lose the man and turn
down-stream again; and that he intended something of the kind is proved
by his taking so much food with him. No doubt, he'd rather have avoided
that, in case it looked suspicious, but he's had one hungry march over
the same ground, and I dare say it was quite enough. Besides, he could
defy us once he'd emptied and obliterated the caches."

"You understand the way your people's minds work better than I do," Lisle
returned dryly.

"That's natural, isn't it? The idea that I'm most impressed with just now
is that Millicent might believe it her duty to stick to Clarence more
closely because of a tale that was merely damaging. She would never allow
herself or anybody else to credit it, unless she had absolutely
convincing proof."

"Yes," agreed Lisle; "I guess you're right. That's precisely why we have
got to get there first."

A thicket of thorny vines and canes barred his way, but he went straight
at the midst of it and struggled through, savagely smashing and rending
down the brush. The clothes he had borrowed from Carew looked
considerably the worse for wear when he came out; and then he recklessly
leaped across a dark cleft the bottom of which he could not see.
Presently they left the ridge and headed away from the river, which
flowed round a wide curve, and toward dawn they were brought up by a
ravine. The roar of water rose hoarsely from its depths. The moon was
getting low and the silvery light did not reach far down the opposite
side, but they could see a sheer, smooth wall of rock, and the width of
the chasm rendered any attempt to jump it out of the question.

"No way of getting across here," decided Lisle. "At the same time, it
looks as if Gladwyne must be held up on the same side that we are. We'll
follow the canon; down-stream, I think."

The moonlight was getting dimmer, but, at some risk of falling into the
rift, they pushed on along the brink, looking down as they went. They
could see no means of descending, but at length, when rocks and trees
were getting blacker and a little more distinct in the chilly dawn, they
made out a fallen trunk with broken white branches lying upon a tall mass
of rock below.

"I've an idea that the top of that tree reached across to this side when
it first came down," Lisle said. "Have you got a match?"

Nasmyth had brought a few carefully-treas