FALSE CLUES The fight had now fairly begun.

The district attorney was working up the side of the prosecution, aided, I was sure, by the over-zealous sheriff.
It remained for me to map out some definite plan of action and organize the defence.
As I rode back to Four-Pools in the early evening after the inquest, I continued to dwell upon the evidence, searching blindly for some clue.
The question which returned most persistently to my mind was "What has become of Cat-Eye Mose ?" It was clear now that upon the answer to this question hinged the ultimate solution of the mystery.

I still clung to the belief that he was guilty and in hiding.

But five days had elapsed since the murder, and no trace of him had been discovered.

It seemed incredible that a man, however well he might know his ground, could, with a whole county on his track, elude detection so effectually.
Supposing after all that he were not guilty, but the sheriff's theory that he had been killed and the body concealed, were true; then who, besides Radnor, could have had any motive for committing the crime?
There was nothing from the past that afforded even the suggestion of a clue.