Without another word each man carefully placed his particular charge
securely about his person. Every scrap of paper was gathered up, and,
after extinguishing the fire, the three men left the cave, and in the
dawn of the early morning descended to the railroad track.

Hands were shaken, the last words of advice given, and Cummings plunged
into the labyrinth of gullies and underbrush, leaving his companions
each to pursue his own way, Moriarity going west, while Haight, going
east, sprang the fence, and entering a thick patch of bushes, brought
out a horse, saddled and bridled. Mounting this he struck into a quick
canter across the country toward St. Louis.




CHAPTER V.

THE FIRST CLEW FOUND.


Mr. Pinkerton had passed an anxious week, Never before had he been so
completely baffled. The finding of the letter-heads with Bartlett's name
written on them in Fotheringham's trunk had quite upset his theories.
Yet the most searching examination could find nothing in the suspected
messenger's previous movements, upon which to fasten any connection with
the robbery.

The vast machinery of Pinkerton's Detective Agency was at work all over
the country. His brightest and keenest operatives had been brought