McCann climbed into the wagon and began rummaging about in the hanging pockets.
The first contained towels, soap, a brush and comb, and other toilet articles; but they were not the things McCann wanted to find. Neither did he take two looks at the writing materials in the second, or the old newspapers in the third; but when he came to the fourth he uttered an exclamation, indicative of the greatest satisfaction.
Plunging his hand into it, he drew out a large brown envelope, which he had seen so often that he recognized it at once as the article he was in search of.
He opened it and took out a folded paper, on which was traced, in inks of different colors, a neat and comprehensive map of the country beyond Zurnst.
The red line showed the route Mr. Lawrence had pursued when he was on his last hunting expedition, the blue pointed out the position of the mountains on each side of the track, and the black dots indicated where the best water and camping grounds were to be found.
"This thing has stood in my way long enough," said McCann as he replaced the map and deliberately tore it and the envelope into four pieces. "If he hadn't had this in his possession I could have lost him on the plain and made him turn back before he had left Zurnst a week's journey behind him; but every time I tried to draw him out of his course this map always set him right. He'll not consult it any more, I bet you! He'll miss it, of course, but he'll think he lost it somewhere along the route. I shall see home again in less than two months, and then Mr. Preston will fork over the balance of my twenty-five pounds, or I'll have him up before a magistrate."
Talking in this way to himself, McCann got out of the wagon, and walking up to the nearest fire threw the map into the flames; and then, without waiting to see what became of it, he took possession of his employer's chair and proceeded to eat a hearty breakfast.
It might have interested him somewhat to know that, of the four pieces into which he had torn the map, only three were consumed, the other being caught by the wind just as it was about to drop into the coals, and carried out into the grove.
It remained there a day or so, moving about from point to point under the influence of every little breeze that struck it, and finally it was blown out upon the plain, from which it returned most unexpectedly to confront McCann with proofs of his guilt.