New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1921-03-18

pected thar the examination Of the
body would he an aftertholght on
Cranston's part. Possibly at first his
only thought was 20 kill and. follow
ing the prompting that has sent so
many murderers to the gallows, he
had aftcrward returned to the scene
of the crime to destroy any clues he
might have left and to search the
body for any evidence against the
arson ring.
Dams next thought was 10 follow
along the trail and find CranstOn's
ambush. OF course 1t would be in the
direction of the settlement from the
body. as the bullet had entered from
the front. He found It hard 10 believe
that Iiildreth had fallen in the exact
spot where the body lay. Men Jour
neying at night keep tn the trail, and
the white heap itself was fully forty
feet back from the trail in the thick
cts. Perhaps Cranston had dragged it
there 10 hide II from the sight of any
one who might pass along the lonely
trail again; and ii was "A remote pos
sihiiity that Whisperfoot, coming In
the night. had tugged ii into the thicF
cts for dreadful purposes of his WI
Likely the shot was free when Hill
dreth was In an open place on the
trail; and Dan searched for the am
bush with this conclusion in mind. He
N-alln1 haaI- lnpLipu far a thipEpt
from which such a spot would be Wis
ible. Something over fifty yards down
he found it; and he knew it by the
empty brass rife cartridge that lay
half buried in the wet leaves.
The shell was of the same caliher
as Cranston's rifle. Dams hand shook
as he put it in his pocket.
Encouraged by this amazing ind
he turned up the trail toward Hi
dreth's cabin. Ii might be possible.
he thought, that Hildreth had left
some Of his teStimony-perhapS such
rudely Scrawled letters as Cranston
had written HMM some forgotten
drawer i'm his hut. Ii WAS but Il short
walk for Dams hardened legs, and he
made il before midafternoon.
The search itself was wholly with
result. But because he had time
to think as he climbed the ridge, be-
cause as he strobe along beneath that
wintry sky he had a chance TO con
slider every detail of the case, he was
able To start out on n new tack when,
lust before sunset, he returned TO the
body. This new train of thought had
as its basis that CranStOn'S shot had
not been deadly at once; that, wound
ed, Hildreth had himself crawled into
the thickets where WhiSperfoot had
found him. And that meant that he
had to enlarge his search for such
documents as IIildrcth had carried to
all the territory between the
trail and the location Of the body.
1t was possibly n distance of forty
feet, and getting down on his hands
and knees, Dan looked for any break
n the shruhhery that would Indicate
the path that the wounded Hildreth
had taken. And it vas ten minutes
W tll INV il'l''ls ~ lbl tn hiilS hP
'ertain details of the crime. His
senses had been trained and sharp
ned by his months in the wilderness,
md he was able To back-track the
Wounded man from the skeleton clear
a the clearing on the trail where he
lad first fallen. But rs no clues pre-
,ented themselves, he started to turn
nome.
lie walked twelve feet, then turned
Jack. out of the corner Of his eye II
seemed to him that he had caught a
lash of white, near the end Of n great,
lead log beside the path that the
Wounded IIildreth had taken. For a
he searched in vain. EVIDENT
v n yellow leaf had deceived him.
lnce more he retraced his steps, try
ng TO find the position from which his
we had caught the glimpse Of white.
Then he dived straight for the rotten
nd of the log. ,
,rO M CONTINITEDl :