He saw Siwash jerk and dive forward out of sight. He thought he had hit, but did not waste time speculating on the matter. He nipped forward rapidly to close with the brute. He had covered half the distance when he heard a shout, and saw the detective Gatineau on the ground where Siwash had fallen and disappeared. Gatineau stood upright, but drew no shot. Clement discarded cover and ran, scrambling over the rocks to join him.
He reached the spot, found Gatineau, but no Siwash. There was blood on the ground leading away through the rocks. Clement was about to ask questions when, with a loud “Got it, Steve,” the driver scrambled into sight. He had a large automatic in his hand as well as his own revolver.
“Say, you got him pretty,” shouted the driver. “But where is that bad man?”
“We saw him go down ‘smash!’ when you fired,” explained the detective. “He shot right into sight before dropping out of it; his gun dropped out of his hand, hit that rock there and went bouncing down to the foot of the outcrop.... I guess you hit him powerful. I came up here quick to get him if he wasn’t done, while the driver went for the gun.”
“An’ I got the gun, but you didn’t get that bad man.”
“He must be a pretty sick man, anyhow,” said Gatineau, pointing to the blood. “He can’t be far off.”
They followed the trail. It wormed in and out of the rocks, and against some of them was a smear of blood. Then suddenly, across an open space ringed with rocks, they lost it. Siwash had evidently staunched the flow before he had crossed this place. They stared at the rocks, the hard surface of which showed no footprints. They could see no sign of movement.
“He might be at any point of the compass there,” said Clement. “We might hunt all day for him, and not find him.... And we don’t particularly want to find him.”
“No, the sooner we get to Cobalt the better,” agreed Gatineau. “And his teeth are drawn anyhow. We can lodge information at the town and the police there can deal with him—if he remains hereabouts to be dealt with. We’d better get along.”
It was another hour and a half before they reached Cobalt. Here they learned that the tactics of Mr. Neuburg had accomplished all that that villain desired. Heloise and the companion Méduse Smythe had left. They had taken tickets to North Bay. By this time they were already beyond North Bay and any telephone message that could be got there.