“Have you let him get away?” he gasped.
“He wasn’t there,” said Allonby.
“Not there! I saw him and another man when they drove past us in the bluff.”
“Well,” said Allonby, “I’m quite certain there’s nobody in that sleigh now.”
The wind that roared about them cut short the colloquy, and a minute or two later Allonby became sensible that Clavering was speaking again.
“Larry and the other man must have dropped into the soft snow when the team slowed up on the up grade, knowing the horses would go on until they reached their stable,” he said. “Well, they’ll be away through the bluff now, and a brigade of cavalry would scarcely find them on such a night. In fact, we will have to trust the beasts to take us home.”
Just then the Sheriff, with one or two cow-boys, rode up, and Allonby, who did not like the man, laughed as he signed him to stop.
“You can go back and get your driving horses in. We have been chasing a sleigh with no one in it,” he said. “Larry has beaten us again!”