outside of the
house and lay in wait for Betty's confederate, and he did not want to
make any sound that would scare him off. He was proceeding stealthily,
directing his course through the darkness by a stream of moonlight that
came in through one of the kitchen windows, and had almost reached the
kitchen door when his feet struck an obstruction--something soft and
yielding.

There was a sudden scurrying, a sharp, terrified yelp.

Calumet cursed. It was Bob's pup. The animal planted himself in the
stream of moonlight that came in through the window, facing Calumet and
emitting a series of short, high-pitched, resentful barks.

There was humor in this situation, but Calumet did not see it. He
heard a cry of surprise from the direction of the dining-room, and he
turned just in time to see the office door closing on a flood of light.

With savage energy and haste, he pulled on his boots, darted out of the
house, ran across the rear porch, leaped down, and ran around the
nearest corner of the house. As he ran he jerked his pistol from its
holster.

When he got to the front of the house he bounded to the door of the
office and threw it violently open, expecting to surprise Betty and her
confederate. He was confronted by a dense blackness. He dodged back,
fearing a trap, and then lighted a match and held it around the corner
of one of the door jambs. After the match was burning well he threw it
into the room and then peered after it. There came no reply to this
challenge, and so he strode in boldly, lighting another match.

The room was empty.

He saw how it was. Betty and the man had heard the barking of the dog
and had suspected the presence of an eavesdropper. The man had fled.
Probably by this time Betty was in her room. Calumet went out upon the
porch, leaped off, and ran around the house in a direction opposite
that which had marked his course when coming toward the front, covering
the ground with long, swift strides. He reasoned that as he had seen
no one leave the house from the other side or the front, whoever had
been with Betty had made his escape in this direction, and he drew a
breath of satisfaction when, approaching some underbrush near the
kitchen, he saw outlined in the moonlight the figure of a man on a
horse.

The latter had evidently just mounted, for at the instant Calumet saw
him he had just settled into the saddle, one foot searching for a
stirrup. He was about seventy-five feet