The boot-prints pointed to the northeast.

He traced them backward to the southwest through the field, and saw where they had come from near the road, going northeast.
Then, returning, he climbed the fence and followed them northward through the next field.

From there, the next, beyond the road that was a continuation of Main Street, stretched to the railroad embankment.
The track, raggedly defined in trampled loam and muddy furrow, bent in a direction which indicated that its terminus might be the switch where the empty cars had stood last night, waiting for the one-o'clock freight.

Though the fields had been trampled down in many places by the searching parties, he felt sure of the direction taken by the Cross-Roads men, and he perceived that the searchers had mistaken the tracks he followed for those of earlier parties in the hunt.

On the embankment he saw a number of men, walking west and examining the ground on each side, and a long line of people following them out from town.