The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1921-06-02

When I went b;fck-I was only gone
moment-there wasn't sight or sound
of him."
Sergeant Grey conducted a swift
examination. not of Gardeners room,
but of the one in which Allan was iy-
ing. He was rewarded by finding the
little slip of paper. with few crys-
tails of powder still clinging to it. The
coroner examined the crystals through
his magnifying glass; then. somewhat
obviously, raised them on mOistened
finger TO his tongue. and after mo-
menFS hesitation swallowed in an inn
pressive. scholarly fashion.
"Saccharum album he exclaimed.
Common white sugar. Most extraor-
dinary!"
But Sergeant Grey was at the open
window. 1t was only an efght-foOt
drop TO the soft earth, and to the pO-
liceman there was no longer any mys-
terry in Gardeners disappearance. The
mock suicide was a carefully-planned
ruse to be employed by Gardiner if the
worst came to the worst
81 want all of you men, and a horse
for EACH" said Grey. quickly. turning
upon them like a general marShaling
his officers. There are dozen differ
emf trails he may follow, and we must
put man on each. l will give imme-
diate pursuit in the hope of riding
him down before he can throw us of
the scent and l will leave it to you.
Mr.. ArthurS, to organize the posse and
scOur the whole country until he is To-
Gated"
Grey knew that the main road, if
followed far enough, dwindIed into a
pack trail, which in turn seemed to lose
itself in the Businesses of the noun
tains, but in reality opened into a pass
leading through the range. He gave
Gardiner credit for knowing as much
and concluded that the fugitive would
make a bolt straight through the
mountains.
An hours hard riding brought him
into tremendously rough country.
where the trail at times was nothing
more than a 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
a mighty saw. Far below. 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 a damp, treacherOus belt
across the trail But at one such spot
Grey's heart Ieaped within him, for
there, Enthusiastically clear in the thin
soil and soft rock, were the marks of
a 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
eye caught a 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 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-
pice.
The policeman dismOunted carefully.
There was scarcely room for him to
pass his horse on the narrow ledge.
Where the stream had worn it it
sloped downwards at an uncomforta-
BILE angle. He knelt beside it and
traced the marks of the shoe-calks
with his finger. They led over the
edge. Eighteen inches down the
mountain side was a fresh scar where
steel had struck a projecting corner of
rock.
A thousand feet below the green
water slid and swirled in the bed of
the canyon.
THE END.