The superintendent gave Dexter a sidewise glance and regretfully shook his head. "Sorry, just the same. I should like to have identified the man who killed Constable Graves. Now we may never know.
"Young Graves!" he echoed gently. "He'll have to do for the present as you left him. We'll send in for him when we can."
The colonel lapsed into silence for a moment, while his glance roved about him in the ghostly twilight. But presently he turned aside to move through the fringes of the clearing. He was absent for some time, and when he came back he said he had circled the area of timber surrounding the cabin.
"Just to make sure that you overlooked nothing when you searched last night in the dark," he remarked to the corporal. "I'm satisfied. There are no wires strung to the cabin." He faced his companion with a quizzical expression. "It couldn't have been a telephone you heard."
"I heard the whirr of a bell, and I heard a voice give forewarning," Dexter reiterated. "I can tell you no more than that. As for the rest, it all seems as bizarre and unreal this morning as the memory of a nightmare."
"The rest is real enough," said Devreaux somberly. "Graves and your two prisoners murdered, the cabin burned, this strange young woman left on our hands, and 'Pink' Crill and other unknown skulkers at large in the woods. Hard, ugly facts, Dexter!" He looked at the younger man in gloomy foreboding, and sighed, and shook his head. "I hate like thunder to leave you here alone," he ended.
"Pshaw!" said the corporal, with his quick, bright smile.
"Yes, I know. You boys always say that. And that's why I'm able to run this territory with no more than a dozen of you standing by me." The colonel stooped abruptly for his pack, and then straightened with a brusque movement and stuck out his hand. "We'll foot it down the valley to the horses, and ride on out," he said as his iron grip closed for an instant in a farewell handshake. "So-long, David."
Without further speech he beckoned to Alison Rayne. "Ready!" he announced.
The girl hesitated for only a second, and then with a helpless gesture she turned to follow. Devreaux motioned her to go in advance, and she passed by with shut lips and high-poised head, without a single backward glance. The colonel paused to wave his hand, and then the black forest closed upon the retreating figures, and Dexter was left alone in the clearing.