"Oh, what now?" cried Reuther, but with a rising head instead of a
sinking one.

"We will see," said Mr. Black, hastening to meet their guide.
"What now?" he asked. "Have they come together? Have the
detectives got him?"

"No, not HIM; only his horse. The animal has just trotted up--
riderless."

"Good God! the child's instinct was true. He has been thrown--"

"No." Mr. Sloan's mouth was close to the lawyer's ear. "There is
another explanation. If the fellow is game, and anxious enough to
reach the train to risk his neck for it, there's a path he could
have taken which would get him there without his coming round this
turn. I never thought it a possible thing till I saw his horse
trotting on ahead of us without a rider." Then as Reuther came
ambling up, "Young lady, don't let me scare you, but it looks now
as if the young man had taken a short cut to the station, which,
so far as I know, has never been taken but by one man before. If
you will draw up closer--here! give me hold of your bridle. Now
look back along the edge of the precipice for about half a mile,
and you will see shooting up from the gully a solitary tree whose
topmost branch reaches within a few feet of the road above."

She looked. They were at the lower end of the gully which curved
up and away from this point like an enormous horseshoe. They could
see the face of the precipice for miles.