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."
"Did he say anythin' to you?"
"He ast me where this path went to."
"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.
"No, sir."
"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.
"What!"
"'Cause he yelled at me after he'd gone in a-ways an' ast—an' ast—" The boy paused irresolutely.
"Asked what?"
"He ast me where in h—— the path was."
"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.
"I went as fur as the clearin', an' then he tole me to stop. He said he could find the way from there. After that he run up the bank as if some one was after him. There was a boat waitin' fer him under the clift."
"Did he get into it?" cried Squires.
"He tole me not to look or he'd break my neck," said the boy. The posse nervously fingered its arsenal.
"But you did look?"
"Yep. I seen 'em plain."
"Them? Was there more than one?"
"There was a woman in the skift."
"You don't say so!" gasped Squires.
"Dang it, ain't he tellin' you!" Anderson ejaculated scornfully.
The boy was hurried off at the head of the posse, which by this time had been reinforced. He led the way through the dismal thickets, telling his story as he went.
"She was mighty purty, too," he said. "The feller waved his hat when he seen her, an' she waved back. He run down an' jumped in the boat, an' 'nen—'nen—"
"Then what?" exploded Anderson Crow.
"He kissed her!"
"The d—— murderer!" roared Crow.
"He grabbed up the oars and rowed 'cross an' downstream. An' he shuck his fist at me when he see I'd been watchin'," said the youngster, ready to whimper now that he realised what a desperate character he had been dealing with.
"Where did he land on the other side?" pursued the eager reporter.
"Down by them willer trees, 'bout half a mile down. There's the skift tied to a saplin'. Cain't you see it?"
Sure enough, the stern of a small boat stuck out into the deep, broad river, the bow being hidden by the bushes.
"Both of 'em hurried up the hill over yender, an' that's the last I seen of 'em," concluded the lad.
Anderson Crow and his man-hunters stared helplessly at the broad, swift river, and then looked at each other in despair. There was no boat in sight except the murderer's, and there was no bridge within ten miles.
While they were growling a belated detachment of hunters came up to the river bank greatly agitated.
"A telephone message has just come to town sayin' there would be a thousand dollars reward," announced one of the late arrivals; and instantly there was an imperative demand for boats.
"There's an old raft upstream a-ways," said the boy, "but I don't know how many it will kerry. They use it to pole corn over from Mr. Knoblock's farm to them big summer places in the hills up yender."
"Is it sound?" demanded Anderson Crow.
"Must be or they wouldn't use it," said Squires sarcastically. "Where is it, kid?"
The boy led the way up the river bank, the whole company trailing behind.
"Sh! Not too loud," cautioned Anderson Crow. Fifteen minutes later a wobbly craft put out to sea, manned by a picked crew of determined citizens of Tinkletown. When they were in midstream a loud cry came from the bank they had left behind. Looking back, Anderson Crow saw excited men dashing about, most of them pointing excitedly up into the hills across the river. After a diligent search the eyes of the men on the raft saw what it was that had created such a stir at the base of Crow's Cliff.
"There he is!" cried Anderson Crow in awed tones. There was no mistaking the identity of the coatless man on the hillside. A dozen men recognised him as the man they were after. Putting his hands to his mouth, Anderson Crow bellowed in tones that savoured more of fright than command:
"Say!"
There was no response.
"Will you surrender peaceably?" called the captain of the craft.
There was a moment of indecision on the part of the fugitive. He looked at his companion, and she shook her head—they all saw her do it.
Then he shouted back his reply.
CHAPTER III
The Culprits
"Ship ahoy!" shouted the coatless stranger between his palms.
"Surrender
