ured wax matches with him, and
he lighted one. It was very still, except for the roar of the hidden
torrent, and the pale flame burned steadily in the motionless cold air.
It showed a couple of hollows, where something had rested, close to the
edge of the rift, and one or two fresh scratches on a strip of rock.
Lisle stooped down beside them.

"Hold the thing lower!" he exclaimed sharply. "It's as I suspected--this
is where Gladwyne got across; though he has better nerves than I thought
he had. The broken end of a branch or two rested right here, and he was
smart enough to heave the butt off the other bank, after he'd crawled
over. Looks to me as if it had broken off yonder stump. Guess there'll be
light enough to look for a way across in half an hour."

Sitting down he filled his pipe, and shortly afterward he raised one hand
as if listening. For a while, Nasmyth could hear nothing except the roar
of water; there was not a sound that he could catch in the thin
straggling bush behind them where few trails of mist were stretched
athwart the trees. Then he started as a faint crackling and snapping
began in the distance.

"Can it be a bear?" he asked.

"No; it's a man!"

Nasmyth was somewhat astonished. They had not seen a human being except
those of their party for a long while, and it seemed strange that they
should come across one now in the early dawn in those remote wilds.

"He's wearing boots," he said diffidently, as the crackling drew nearer.

"Yes," Lisle responded; "he's making a good deal more noise than a
bushman would."

The sound steadily approached them. Nasmyth found something mysterious
and rather eerie in it, and he was on the whole relieved when a dark
figure materialized among the trees near by. He could barely see it, but
Lisle called out sharply:

"What has brought you on our trail, Batley?"

The man came toward them with a breathless laugh and sat down.

"It isn't your trail but Gladwyne's I'm interested in, and I can't say
that I've succeeded in following that. I merely pushed on, until I struck
this canon and as I couldn't get across, I followed it up."

"You're not easily scared," Lisle commented. "You might have got lost.
Guess you had some motive that made you take the risk."

"I felt pretty safe. You see, I knew I could strike the river, if
necessary. At the same time you were right about the motive--in fact,
there's no use in trying to hide it. I may as well confess that I'd
so