"But that's impossible, sergeant. A man might have slit up the sacks
out of spite, or from sheer mischief, but he wouldn't have carried off
any."

"No, sir. He wouldn't, would he? Well, all I can say is that it's
rather queer."

"Well, go on," said Lennox; and the sergeant went on, tracing the grain
right out to the back of the corrugated iron huts that formed one side
of the square, and then past the angle and along the next side, now
losing the traces, but soon picking them up again, the hard, dry earth
completely refusing to give any trace of the bearer's feet.

Then the next angle of the square was reached, turned, and the sergeant
still passed on with the light.

"Gets thicker here," he whispered, and directly after he stopped and
pointed down at two or three handfuls of the bright grain.

"Seem to have set down a basket here, sir," he said softly. "Shall I go
on?"

"Go on? Yes, and trace the robbery home. The scoundrel who has
tampered with the stores deserves the severest punishment."

The sergeant proceeded, but more slowly now, for he had only a grain
here and a grain there to act as his guide; but these still pointed out
the direction taken by the marauders, till the trackers came suddenly
upon a good-sized patch.

"Tell you what, sir," whispered the sergeant; "there's only one chap in
it, and he's got such a swag he's obliged to keep stopping to rest."

"Yes, that seems to be the case, sergeant," said Lennox, looking
carefully about. "Let's see; we must be near the colonel's quarters,"
he whispered.

"That's right, sir. About twenty yards over yonder; and the fellows on
sentry ought to have seen the light and challenged us by now."

"No," said Lennox; "the houses completely shut us off. Go on."

The light was held low down again and swung here and there in the
direction that the marauder ought to have taken; but there was not a
grain to be seen to indicate the track, and the sergeant had to hark
back again and again without being able to find it.

"Rum thing, sir," he whispered. "He must have stopped here and found
that his basket was leaking, and patched it up, for I can't see another
grain anywhere."

"Neither can I, sergeant; but try again. Take a longer circle."

"Right, sir; but it does seem queer that he should have stopped to make
all fast just behind the colonel's quarters."

"It seems to indicate that it was the work of some stranger; otherwise
he would not have halted