Page:O'Higgins--The Adventures of Detective Barney.djvu/293

 The road descended a more gradual slope than it had climbed, and Barney trudged along doggedly, with his mind on his destination. He expected to be walking all night, because, of course, the man would not have an auto if he lived within easy walking distance of the station. And Barney intended, when he had located the house, to wait until daylight to reconnoiter before deciding how to make his approach.

He crossed a bridge that was little larger than a culvert over a stream that was no more than a liquid note among pebbles. There was a clearing on his left, with a house in it and a barn; the automobile track did not pass it more indifferently than Barney did. The road dipped and rose again, turned through woods, came out on open fields, dropped through a grove of spruce, crossed another little hollow, rose to a sharp hillock, and started down a stony incline towards the broad valley that Barney had seen from the top of the ridge. The auto track did not show on the stones,