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 empty cars had

stood last night, waiting 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