She shut the little door in the wall and turned away.
Old Broadbrim took particular note of the situation of the secret door, and walked with Belle Demona from the room.
Merle Macray turned from the front window and caught the detective's eye.
"This way, Riggs," said he, and they stepped out upon the porch.
"Did you find her?" he asked eagerly.
Old Broadbrim kept cool and shook his head.
"I have found foot tracks near the old sheep sheds. I even entered them a while ago and looked around. She has been there, and I found a man's footprints in the dust under the old roofs."
"Oh, I went over there in hopes of finding her, and——"
"Then you must have missed her, for her tracks are strangely mixed with yours. If you had watched a little longer, Riggs, you might have got the twist on her neck. I'm going to fire the sheds at sundown. They will burn like tinder boxes, and that will deprive this fair viper of a shelter, and perhaps the coming foe of an ambush."
A shudder passed over the detective's frame at this, and he thought of the girl in the hay.