that presumably contained her rustic finery, but which, to a close
approach, would have disclosed the sulphurous odor of gunpowder.

When the cluster of horsemen was fairly on the march, however, she sat
quite still, and more than once Seymour noted that, with her face close
to the shoulder of the guide, she was whispering in his ear. What was
their game? he marvelled, having once projected the idea that this late
comer was, himself, the "wolf's head" whom they were to chase down for a
rich reward, incongruously hunting amidst his own hue and cry. Or,
Seymour again doubted, had he merely constructed a figment of a scheme
from his own imaginings and these attenuations of suggestion? For there
seemed, after all, scant communication between the two, and this was
even less when the moon was unveiled, the shifting shimmer of the clouds
falling away from the great sphere of pearl, gemming the night with an
incomparable splendor. It had grown almost as light as day, and the
sheriff ordered the pace quickened. Along a definite cattle-trail they
went at first, but presently they were following through bosky recesses
a deer-path, winding sinuously at will on the way to water. The thinning
foliage let in the fair, ethereal light, and all the sylvan aisles stood
in sheeny silver illumination. The drops of moisture glittered
jewel-wise on the dark boughs of fir and pine, and one could even
discriminate the red glow of sour-wood and the golden flare of hickory,
so well were the chromatic harmonies asserted in this refined and
refulgent glamour.

"Barton Smith!" called the sheriff, suddenly from the rear of the party.
There was no answer, and Seymour felt his prophetic blood run cold. His
conscience began to stir. Had he, indeed, no foundation for his
suspicion?

"Smith! _Smith_" cried the irascible officer. "Hey, there! Is the man
deaf?"

"Not deef, edzac'ly," Meddlesome's voice sounded reproachfully; "jes a
leetle hard o' hearin'." She had administered a warning nudge.

"Hey? What ye want?" said the "Wolf's Head," suddenly checking his
horse.

"Have you any idea of where you are going, or how far?" demanded the
officer, sternly.

"Just acrost the gorge," the guide answered easily.

"I heard he had been glimpsed in a hollow tree. That word was telephoned
from the cross-roads to town. It was the tree the skeleton was in."

"That tree? It's away back yander," observed one of the posse, reluctant
and disaffected.

"Oh, he h