"I noticed all them things," averred Anderson Crow, supreme once more.
"But what in thunder did he want with those hair-pins?" inquired George Ray.
"Never mind," said Anderson mysteriously. "You'll find out soon enough."
"Of course I do," responded the marshal loftily.
"I'm not givin' any clews away. You just wait a while and see if I'm not right."
And they were satisfied that the detective knew all about it. After crossing the foot-log the party was divided as to which direction it should take. The marshal said the man had run to the southeast, but for some inexplicable reason quite a number of the pursuers wanted to hunt for him in the northwest. Finally it was decided to separate into posses of ten, all to converge at Crow's Cliff as soon as possible. There were enough double-barrelled shotguns in the party to have conquered a pirate crew.
At the end of an hour Anderson Crow and his delegation came to the narrow path which led to the summit of Crow's Cliff. They were very brave by this time. A small boy was telling them he had seen the fugitive about dinner-time "right where you fellers are standin' now."
"Did he have any blood on him?" demanded Anderson Crow.
"No, sir; not 'less it was under his clothes."
"See that, gentlemen!" cried Anderson. "I knew I was right. He wanted--"
"Well, where did he go?" demanded Harry Squires.
"I said it went to the top of the clift. An' then he said, 'How do you git to the river?' I tole him to go down this side path here an' 'round the bottom of the hill."
"Didn't he go up the cliff?" demanded the marshal.
"Well, what in thunder did he ask me where the cliff was if he--"
"So he went to the river, eh?" interrupted Squires. "Come on, men; he went down through this brush and bottomland."
"He got lost, I guess," volunteered the boy.
"'Cause he yelled at me after he'd gone in a-ways an' ast--an' ast--" The boy paused irresolutely.
"By ginger, that's him, right out an' out!" exclaimed Mr. Crow excitedly.
"'Nen he said he'd give me a quarter if I'd show him the way; so I--"
"Did he give you the quarter?" 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.