Page 96 (1/2)

The soft ground had been trampled by many feet The boot-prints pointed to

the northeast He traced theh the field,

and sahere they had co, he clih the

next field From there, the next, beyond the road that was a continuation

of Main Street, stretched to the railroad eedly

defined in trampled loam and muddy furrow, bent in a direction which

indicated that its terht be the switch where the e for the one-o'clock freight Though the fields

had been tra parties, he felt

sure of the direction taken by the Cross-Roads men, and he perceived that

the searchers had mistaken the tracks he followed for those of earlier

parties in the hunt On the e the ground on each side, and a long line of people

following them out from town He stopped He held the fate of Six-Cross-

Roads in his hand and he knew it

He knew that if he spoke, his evidence would damn the Cross-Roads, and

that it meant that more than the White-Caps would be hurt, for the Cross-

Roads would fight If he had believed that the dissee could have helped Harkless, he would have called to theed him out to their shanties wounded, or as a prisoner; such

a proceeding would have courted detection, and, also, they were not that

kind; they had been "looking for hi time, and their one idea was

to kill hientleness, was the sort of man, Briscoe

believed, ould have to be killed before he could be touched Of one