"Hello!" he ejaculated, softly; "our caller left by a different route after all. Now, why did he turn off here?"
The driveway lay between two parallel rows of cedars, set so closely that they almost formed a hedge. Simultaneously with the exclamation, Converse stepped to one side, directing the light to a spot beneath the low-hanging branches. Here the shadow was so dense, even in daytime, that the soil was quite free from grass or any growth, excepting a few wan, straw-like weeds; it was, besides, quite moist.
"Tiptoeing, too, you see," went on the Captain. "He took alarm at something.... One solitary, isolated heelmark; I wonder if he's left an entire footprint anywhere?"
"You can see where he pressed through the branches," observed McCaleb.
"Yes. If he followed a straight course, he struck the walk at about the front gate. Come a little farther down the drive."
Nearly every step of this sally into the night presented something novel to the two eager searchers. They had proceeded but a few yards, when of a sudden the leader once more came to a halt, at the same time extending a restraining hand.
"Wait a bit, Mac," he admonished. He dropped to one knee and cast the eye of light about over the space in front of him. "There's been some one else here," he presently announced in his whisper; "somebody's been standing here and moving about—quite a while to kick up the hard gravel like this. Explains why the other turned off back there.... A-h-h—"
A quizzical lifting of the eyebrow—a puckering of the lips—absorbed the thought.
A little hollow, worn by the passage of many wheels over the hard road-bed, was filled with the product of attrition—a soft sand, fine and plastic; and to this the Captain pointed. McCaleb could see the outline of a small French heel, and beside it a second, which had been partially obliterated by another foot—the latter unmistakably masculine.
"A woman!" the young man breathed; his astonishment was complete. "Well, well! a woman, after all." He looked at the Captain with open curiosity; but Mr. Converse was grimly silent.