268 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



my men liacl gone that way, lie must be on the 

 track of the thieves. Away he went, myself and 

 my other dogs following him, till he came down to 

 the railway line ; here he halted, puzzled for a 

 moment or two, then looking at me, he put his 

 nose down again and went ofP along the line, when, 

 looking some distance ahead, I saw three plate- 

 layers on the rails at work. He went from the 

 spot where he had checked at the Avires, about a 

 hundred yards more or less, and then stopped 

 short, turned round, and, without putting his nose 

 down, he went directly back to the place whence 

 he had thus diverged from his original line ; then 

 he put his nose down again, and took up the 

 J anning through the wires, and over the rails, and 

 jumjoed a deep wet ditch into the open forest on 

 the other side, and then he checked again. As I 

 followed him across the line over the soft sand 

 about the rails, I looked down, and, with intense 

 delight, saw that he absolutely trod in the footstep 

 of a man, and that two men had recently crossed 

 the line, and the smaller footsteps sank nmcli 

 more deeply into the ground than the larger ones. 



Thus to me it was evident that the smaller 

 man, at all events, had a weight on his back, 



