The spectator., 1921-03-25

of the house.
 ''GardinerS gone!" he exclaimed. as he came up to the men.
 Some of the party removed their hats.
 'Oh, not that way-nOt that way!" exclaimed the doctor. ''I mean he's gone-skipped-beat it, if you under stand. Most extraordinary was taking his pulse. 1t was about normal. and he seemed resting easier, so slipped downstairs for the antidote. When 1 went back-I was only gone moment-there wasn't a sight or sound of him.
 Sergeant Grey conducted swift examination. not of Gardiner's room. but of the one in which Allan was ly- ing. He was rewarded by finding the little slip of paper, with q few crys .tals of powder still cfinging to it. The coroner examined the crystals through his .magnifying glass: then. somewhat dubiously. raised them on a mOiStened finger to his tongue. and after a mo- ment's hesitation swallowed in an i'm. pressive, scholarly fashion.
 'Saccharum album!" he exclaimed. Common white sugar. Most ,extraor- 'dinary!"
 But Sergeant Grey was at the open window. It was only an oeight-foot drop to the soft earth. and to the po- liceman there was no longer any mys- tery in Gardiners disappearance. The mock suicide was q carefulfy-planned ruse to he employed by Gardiner if the worst came to the worst.
 'I want all of you men, and q horse for each" said Grey. quickly. turning upon them like a general marshaling his officers. '"There are a dozen differ ent trails he may follow. and we must put a man on each. l will give imme- diate pursuit, in the hope of riding him down before he can throw us off the scent and I will leave it to you. MT. Arthltrs, to organize the posse and SCOUT the whole country until he is To. cated."
 Grey kDew that the main road, if followed far enough, dwindled into a pack trail, which in turn semed to lose itself in the fastnesses of the noun tains, but in reality opened into pass leading through the range. He gave Gardiner credit for knowing as much. and concluded that the fugitive would make bolt straight through the mountains.
 An hours hard riding brought him t,.a .l where the trail at times was nothing more than narrow defile or ledge. and sheer walls of rock rose thou sands of feet above, their giant edges cutting the blue sky like the teeth of mighty saw. Far below, a ribbon of green and white, the river rolled in its canyon. Here and there a thin stream of water sprayed down the mountain side. cutting q damp. treacherouS belt across the trail, But at one such spot Grey's heart leaped within him, for there. unmistakably clear in the thin soil and soft rock, were the marks of horses shoe, not an hour old. A few minutes later he saw Gardiner swinging round a spur of rock half a mile further up the pass.
 Suddenly, at a turn in the path, his eve caught n sight which made him throw his horse back on his tracks. A sheer precipice fell away a thousand feet below him. and beetling cliffs cut off the sky above. Across the path trickled Il little stream. And there in the stream. so clear they could not be misread. were the marks cut by a horses feet sliding over the preci- pioe.
 The policeman dismounted carefully. There was scarcely room for him to pass his hor~e on the narrow ledge Where the stream had worn it it slOped downwards at an uncomforta- hle angte He knelt beside 1t and traced the marks of the shoe-calks with his finger. They led over the edge Eighteen inches down the mountain side was fresh scar where steel had struck projecting corner of rock.
 A thousand feet below the green water slid and swiried in the bed of the canyon.
 THE END.