Williams news., 1921-08-05

II
 thrust his fingers into it's pockets, thel
 into the pockets of the shirt and trous
 CTS. All paper that would in an!
 way serve to identify the murdered
 man, or tell what his purpose had beer | in journeying down the trail the nigh1
 of the murder had been removed. Only
 one explanation presented itself | Cranston had come before hiw and
 searched the body himself.
 Dan looked about for tracks, and he was considerably surprised to find the blurred, indistinct imprint of a shoe other than his own. He hadn't the least hope that the tracks themselves
 would offer a clue to a detective.
 They were too dim for that. The sur
 prising fact was that since the mur-
 ger had been committed immediately
 before the fall rains, the water had
 not completely washed them out. The
 only possibility remaining was that
 CranSton had returned to the body
 after the weeks rainfall. The track
 had been dimmed by the lighter rains
 that had fallen since.
 But yet it was entirely to be ex-
 pected that the examination of the
 body would be an afterthought on
 CranSton'S part. Possibly at first his
 only thought was to kill and, follow ing the prompting that has sent so many murderers to the gallows, he had afterward 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 to follow along the trail and find Cranston's ambush. Of course it would be in the dironfinn of fhn fha body, as the bullet had entered from the front. He found it hard to believe that Hildreth had fallen in the exact | spot where the body lay. Men jour | neyfng at night keep to the trail, and | the white heap itself was fully forty | feet back from the trail in the thick cts. Perhaps Cranston had dragged 1t there to hide 1t from the sight of any one who might pass along the lonely trail again; and 1t was a remote pos sfbilfty that Whfsperfoot, coming in he night, had tugged it into the thick ets for dreadful purposes of his own. Likely the shot was fired when Hil- ireth was in an open place on the push with this conclusion in mind. He walked back, 1ookingI for thicket rom which such spot would be vfs- b1e. Something over fifty yards down le found it; and he knew 1t by the mpty brass rifle cartridge that lay a1f buried in the wet leaves.
 The shell was of the same ca1iber | S CranSton's rifle. Dams hand shook S he put it in his pocket .
 Encouraged by this amazing find, e turned up the trail toward Hfl- reth's cabin. It might be possible e thought, that Hildreth had left one of his testimony-perhaps such 1dely scrawled letters as Cranston ad written him-in some forgotten | rawer in his hut. It was but a short ak for Dams hardened legs, and he ade it before midafternoon. The search itself was wholly with 1t result. But because he had time
 think as he climbed the ridge, be- use as he strode along beneath that fntry sky he had chance to con- l der every detail of the case, he was | ,le to start out on new tack when, st before sunset, he returned to the | 'dy. This new train of thought had |
 it's basis that CranSton's shot had Ij 1t been deadly at once; that, wound ll :, Hildreth had himself craw1ed into Il e thickets where Whisperfoot had II und him. And that meant that he ll d to enlarge his search for such E as Hildreth had carried to E ,lude all the territory between the lf1 and the location of. the body. ts It was possibly distance of forty ', et, and getting down on his hands r.. d knees, Dan looked for any break ," the shrubbery that would indicate 2 path that the wounded Hfldreth pl d taken. And it was ten minutes IT II rewarded, as far as clearing up DC tain details of the crime His co lses had been trained and sharp r fir ed by his months in the wilderness, to d he was able to back-track the wi unded man from the skeleton clear us the clearing on the trail where he tic first fallen. But as no clues pre- St tied themselves, he started to turn Fa ne. of He walked twelve feet, then turned tn, K. Out of the corner of his eye 1t of med to him II he had caught a ;h of white, near the end of a great, SD, Id log beside the path that the be unded Hildreth had taken. For wh ment he searched in vain. Evident sh, yellow leaf had deceived him. If ce more he retraced his steps, try flu to find the position from which his vii
 had caught the glimpse of white. st,a en he dfved straight for the rotten co,
 of the log. acc
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