“We’ve passed ’em,” he announced. “They didn’t git this far. We’ve got ’em now, sure.”
The east was just showing a tinge of gray, as they turned to retrace their steps. Jed stopped every now and then to scrutinize the road. At the end of a mile, they met the sheriff and his party in the wagon.
“See anything of ’em?” he asked.
“Not a thing,” said Jed, “but they’re back there, somewhere. Wait a minute,” and he got down and looked at the road again. “By George!” he cried, “they ain’t far off! See, here’s where they turned th’ wagon an’ started her back.” Then he looked at the tracks again. “I don’t know, either,” he added. “I don’t believe they turned it at all. Look how it ran down in this gully here by the fence—it’s a wonder it didn’t upset. The horses turned toward home themselves.”
“Well, and where are the convicts?” asked the sheriff.
“They’re somewhere between here an’ th’ forks o’ th’ road,” said Jed. “They can’t git away!”
But by noon he was forced to confess that their capture was not going to be so easy as he had supposed. Practically every foot of the ground on both sides of the road had been beaten over, and yet not a trace of the robbers had been discovered. Nay, more than that, search as he might, Jed, with all his skill in woodcraft, was not able to discover where they had left the road. That four men, carrying a heavy chest, should have been able to cross the muddy fields which extended on both sides of the road without leaving some mark of their passage seemed absurd, and yet, after going over the ground for the third time, Jed was forced to confess himself defeated.
“They’re slick ones—that’s all I kin say,” he remarked, and mounted his horse and started back to Coalville.
The sheriff picketed every by-path; through all the neighbourhood the alarm was spread, and men were on the alert. Acting under instructions from the State authorities, the sheriffs of adjoining counties set a guard on every road by which Coalville could possibly be approached, and every one who could not give a satisfactory account of himself and who resembled in the least degree any one of the four convicts, was placed under arrest. The police of every city, the constables of every township, nay, the dwellers in every house, were on the lookout for the fugitives. It seemed impossible that they could escape through the meshes of a net so closely drawn. Yet two days passed, and they had not been heard from. They had disappeared as completely as though the earth had opened and swallowed them.