With Merle Macray between them, the two man-hunters rode swiftly over the open.
The stars had come out with unwonted brilliancy, and the whole surface of the heavens seemed studded with them, like a vast diamond field.
The road to Perth was well defined, and the steeds, which had traveled it often, knew the way without being guided.
Not for a moment did the captors of the hunted man remove their eyes from him.
Once Old Broadbrim ventured to break the reverie into which Merle had fallen, but the glance he got was enough.
"It's been a long trail, sir," said Old Broadbrim.
"You're not at the end of it yet," was the flashed response.
"You took the steamer ahead of me—the Campania. I found the clew in the papers left behind by Jason Marrow, the man killed the same night of the Fifth Avenue murder."
"His papers?"
"Yes; I know who that man was, and that makes your crime all the darker."