I did not betray Frank, but I resolved to keep a still closer watch on him.

It was partially because of this uneasy sense of his trickiness in the fringe of my mind that I made a discovery.

My sleeping-bag rested on a raised platform in one corner, and at a favorable moment I examined the bag.

It had not been tampered with, but I noticed a string turning out through a chink between the logs.

I found it came from a thick layer of straw under my bed, and had been tied to the end of a flatly coiled lasso.