Neilson knew his young partner now.  He saw clearly at last that Ray was not and had never been a faithful confederate, but indeed a malicious and bitter enemy, only waiting his chance to overthrow his leader.  They were still partners in their effort to rescue the girl and slay her abductor; otherwise they were at swords’ points.  And there would be something more than plain, swift slaying, now.  If Neilson could read aright, the actual, physical change that had been wrought in Ray’s face foretold no ordinary end for Ben.  His features were curiously drawn; and his eyes had a fixed, magnetic, evil light.  Occasionally in his darker hours Neilson foresaw even more sinister possibilities in this change in Ray:  the abnormal intensity manifest in every look and word, the weird, evil preoccupation that seemed ever upon him.  There was not only the fate of Ben to consider, but that of Beatrice too, out in these desolate forests.  But surely Ray’s degenerate impulses could be mastered.  Neilson need not fear this, at least.

Chan Heminway, also, had developed marvelously in the journey.  He also was more assertive, less the underling he had been.  He had developed a brutality that, though it contained nothing of the exquisite fineness of cruelty of which Ray’s diseased thought might conceive, was nevertheless the full expression of his depraved nature.  He no longer cowered in fear of Neilson.  Rather he looked to Ray as his leader, took him as his example, tried to imitate him, and at last really began to share in his mood.  In cruelty to the horses he was particularly adept; but he was also given to strange, savage bursts of insane fury.

“We must be close on them now,” Neilson said one morning when they had left the main gorge of the Yuga far behind them.  “If they’re not dead we’re bound to find trace of ’em in a few days.”

The hope seemed well-founded.  It is impossible for even most of the wild creatures—­furtive as twilight shadows—­to journey through wood spaces without leaving trace of their goings and comings:  much less clumsy human beings.  Ultimately the searchers would find their tracks in the soft earth, the ashes of a camp fire, or a charred cooking rack.

“And when we get ’em, we can wait and live on meat until the river goes up in fall—­then float on down to the Indian villages in their canoe,” Chan answered.  “It will carry four of us, all right.”

Ray, Chan, Neilson and Neilson’s daughter—­these made four.  What remained of Ben when Ray was through could be left, silent upon some hushed hillside, to the mercy of the wild creatures and the elements.

Surely they were in the enemy-country now; and now a fresh fear began to oppress them.  They might expect an attack from their implacable foe at any moment.  It did not make for ease of mind to know that any brush clump might be their enemy’s ambush; that any instant a concealed rifle might speak death to them in the silence.  Ben would have every advantage of fortress and ambush.  They had not thought greatly of this matter at first; but now the fear increased with the passing days.  Even Neilson was not wholly exempt from it.  It seemed a hideous, deadly thing, incompatible with life and hope, that they should be plunging deeper, farther into helplessness and peril.