Going! and as you say not in the
direction of the waterfall."
"Hush! I see some one at the kitchen window. Let us move warily and be
sure not to confound these prints with those of any other person. It
looks as if a great many people had passed here."
"Yes, this is the way to the chicken-coops and out-houses. But in the
ground beyond I think I see a single line of steps again,--small steps
like these. Where can they be leading? They are deep like those of a
person running."
"And straggling, like those of a person running in the dark. See how they
waver from the direct line down there, turn, and almost come up against
that wood-pile! Whose steps are these? Whose, Mr. Harper? Quick! I must
see where they go. Our time will not be lost. The key to the labyrinth is
in our hands."
The lawyer was in the rear and the eyes of the other were fixed far
ahead. For this reason, perhaps, the former allowed himself a quiet shake
of the head, which might not have encouraged the other so very much, had
he caught sight of it. They were now on the verge of the garden, or what
would soon be a garden if these rains betokened spring. A path ran along
its edge and in this path the footsteps they were following lost
themselves; but they came upon them again among the hillocks of some old
potato-hills beyond, and finally traced them quite across the garden
waste to a fence, along which they ran, blundering from ploughed earth to
spots of smoother ground, and so back again till they came upon an old
turn-stile!
Passing through this, the two men stopped and looked about them.
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