He could not doubt the evidence of his own ears.

Yet who had fired?
For what purpose?
and how had the party disappeared so completely during that narrow margin of time?
There was no place where a man could hide unless he lay flat in the clover; and what occasion would any one have to thus seek concealment?
Even if the shooter knew of the passing automobile, or heard his approach through the trees, there could be no reasonable cause for concealment.

Determined now to learn exactly what had happened, West pressed his passage forward through the vines of the fence, and emerged into the field beyond.

A half dozen yards and he found the clover trampled, as though a man had passed that way.

The trail led into a shallow depression, past a rather large boulder, near which the trampling of the grass was even more plainly revealed, as though the stranger had remained here for some time, had even seated himself, and then, abruptly ended a few yards away.