Here Sinclair buttoned up his coat and announced his intention of going down to the river. Menotah had sufficiently recovered to walk, so Dave, with a stubborn determination not to have her captured, proposed they should return to the hotel and learn final results the next day.
The others agreed. 'How about you, though?' asked Sinclair.
Marie saw she had been addressed. 'I shall stay here,' she said fiercely. 'I want to learn whether the soldiers have caught that traitor. To-morrow I can go home.'
'She's provided for,' muttered the Factor. 'Come on, Captain. Dave's got his gal.'
They went down the slippery wooden steps, while silence fell again over the frame house where human passion had raged so fiercely that night.
Three men, heated with running, wet to the skin by the heavy rain, came to the shelving bank of the Red River. About three minutes earlier another runner had reached that spot. Without hesitation, he had ploughed a rapid course through the mud reach and sought the deeper water. The former had arrived in time to see the latter swimming towards the opposite shore, putting all the force he could muster into the arm strokes.
They stopped at the edge of the mud, with the knowledge that the adventurer had beaten them.
Lightning still played softly across the heavens. The officer pulled his revolver, then fired shot after shot into the deceptive red glow, glimmering over the waters round the indistinct and distant swimmer. With the shot that emptied the chamber they saw the fugitive drag himself to land by aid of the long willows which swept the stream. For a moment he paused at the foot of the tree-spread bank, to coolly wave his hand in their direction by way of farewell. The next minute he was swallowed up by the dark, pathless line of bush.
'No good following him there,' muttered one of the men resignedly.
The officer swore softly to himself. 'Follow! I should say not. He's as good a bushman as any _nitchi_!
Sullenly they began to retrace their steps, the officer wondering how he could summon courage to face his superiors; but before they had gone far they came across the hunter, tramping stolidly along the rapidly miring trail.
'Where is he?' cried the latter eagerly, as he recognised them.