ghtly wider circle. Prime saw nothing, and, for a time after the
footfalls ceased, heard nothing. But the next manifestation was
startling enough. At a moment when he was beginning to wonder if his
imagination had been playing tricks on him, he heard a curious ripping
sound coming, this time, from behind the inverted canoe.

Silently he rose to his knees with the rifle held low. For shelter, in
case of a shower, the provisions had been placed under the inverted
birch-bark, and he decided instantly that the intruder was trying to
steal them. Not wishing to alarm Lucetta, he got upon his feet and
walked toward the canoe, meaning to put the man behind it between
himself and the firelight.

The manoeuvre was never completed. Before he had taken half a dozen
steps a blinding flashlight was turned upon him from behind the canoe,
and it stopped him as suddenly as if the dazzling radiance had been a
volley from a machine-gun. But the stopping shock was only momentary.
Dashing forward around the end of the canoe, he had a glimpse of a
big-bodied man in a golf cap and sweater crashing his way through the
undergrowth toward the river, and promptly gave chase.

"Grider!--Watson!" he called, but there was no reply. The intruder, as
he ran, had the benefit of his flashlight; Prime could see the momentary
gleams as the runner took a diagonal course which would bring him out a
hundred yards down-stream from a point directly opposite the camp-fire.

Prime collided with a tree, stumbled and fell, and sprang up to call
again. The retreating footfalls were no longer audible, but now there
was another cacophony of noise--the sputtering exhausts of a
motor-boat--and Prime reached the river-bank in time to see the dark
shape of the power-driven craft losing itself in the starlight in its
swift rush down the river.

In the first flush of his rage at what figured as a second heartless
desertion, Prime was strongly tempted to open fire on the retreating
motor-boat and its occupant. This was purely a cave-man prompting, and
before it could translate itself into action the opportunity was gone.
When the motor-boat had disappeared, losing itself to sight and sound,
the breathless pursuer went back to his blankets, swearing gloomily at
the spiteful chance which had opened the door of misfortune by making
him a college classmate of one Watson Grider.

XIV

OF THE NAME OF BANDISH