cowboys of whom he and his daughter had seen much during these last
few weeks, 'was it you who made camp right over yonder?' He pointed.

Helen looked up curiously for Howard's answer and thus met the eyes he
had not withdrawn from her. He smiled at her, a frank, open sort of
smile, and thereafter turned to his questioner.

'When?' he asked briefly.

'Last night. Just before we came.'

'What makes you think some one made camp there?'

'There was a fire; bacon was frying, coffee boiling.'

'And you didn't step across to take a squint at your next-door
neighbour?'

'We did,' said the professor. 'But he had gone, leaving his fire
burning, his meal cooking.'

Howard's eyes travelled swiftly to Helen, then back to her father.

'And he didn't come back?'

'He did not,' said Longstreet. 'Otherwise I should not have asked if
you were he.'

Even yet Howard gave no direct answer. Instead he turned his back and
strode away to the deserted camp site. Helen watched him through the
bushes and noted how he made a quick but evidently thorough examination
of the spot. She saw him stoop, pick up frying-pan and cup, drop them
and pass around the spring, his eyes on the ground. Abruptly he turned
away and pushed through a clump of bushes, disappearing. In five
minutes he returned, his face thoughtful.

'What time did you get here?' he asked. And when he had his answer he
pondered it a moment before he went on: 'The gent didn't leave his
card. But he broke camp in a regular blue-blazes hurry; saddled his
horse over yonder and struck out the shortest way toward King Canon.
He went as if the devil himself and his one best bet in hell hounds was
running at his stirrups.'

'How do you know?' queried Longstreet's insatiable curiosity. 'You
didn't see him?'

'You saw the fire and the things he left stewing,' countered Howard.
'They spelled hurry, didn't they? Didn't they shout into your ears
that he was on the lively scamper for some otherwhere?'

'Not necessarily,' maintained Longstreet eagerly. 'Reasoning from
the scant evidence before us, a man would say that while the stranger
may have left his camp to hurry on, he may on the other hand have just
dodged back when he heard us coming and hidden somewhere close by.'

Again Howard pondered briefly.

'There are other signs you did not see,' he said in a moment. 'The
soil where he had his horse staked out shows tracks, and they are the
tracks of a horse goin