er?" questioned one of the men.

"Yep. He'd a roll of bills as big as my leg." Everybody gasped and
thought of Grover's hog-money.

"You went to the river with him?" interrogated the reporter.

"I went as fur as the clearin', an' then he tole me to stop. He said he
could find the way from there. After that he run up the bank as if some
one was after him. There was a boat waitin' fer him under the clift."

"Did he get into it?" cried Squires.

"He tole me not to look or he'd break my neck," said the boy. The posse
nervously fingered its arsenal.

"But you _did_ look?"

"Yep. I seen 'em plain."

"Them? Was there more than one?"

"There was a woman in the skift."

"You don't say so!" gasped Squires.

"Dang it, ain't he tellin' you!" Anderson ejaculated scornfully.

The boy was hurried off at the head of the posse, which by this time had
been reinforced. He led the way through the dismal thickets, telling his
story as he went.

"She was mighty purty, too," he said. "The feller waved his hat when he
seen her, an' she waved back. He run down an' jumped in the boat, an'
'nen--'nen--"

"Then what?" exploded Anderson Crow.

"He kissed her!"

"The d---- murderer!" roared Crow.

"He grabbed up the oars and rowed 'cross an' downstream. An' he shuck
his fist at me when he see I'd been watchin'," said the youngster, ready
to whimper now that he realised what a desperate character he had been
dealing with.

"Where did he land on the other side?" pursued the eager reporter.

"Down by them willer trees, 'bout half a mile down. There's the skift
tied to a saplin'. Cain't you see it?"

Sure enough, the stern of a small boat stuck out into the deep, broad
river, the bow being hidden by the bushes.

"Both of 'em hurried up the hill over yender, an' that's the last I seen
of 'em," concluded the lad.

Anderson Crow and his man-hunters stared helplessly at the broad, swift
river, and then looked at each other in despair. There was no boat in
sight except the murderer's, and there was no bridge within ten miles.

While they were growling a belated detachment of hunters came up to the
river bank greatly agitated.

"A telephone message has just come to town sayin' there would be a
thousand dollars reward," announced one of the late arrivals; and
instantly there was an imperative demand for boats.

"There's an old raft upstream a-ways," said the boy, "but I don't know
how many it will kerry. They use it to pole cor