We've got to prove the corpus
deelicti. Drive up, Bill!"
With a perseverance that spoke well for the detective's endurance, but
ill for his intelligence, the "bob" sped along aimlessly. It was
ridiculous to think of tracking a sleigh over a well-travelled road, and
it was not until they reached the cross-roads that Harry Squires
suggested that inquiries be made of the farmers in the neighbourhood.
After diligent effort, a farmer was discovered who said he had heard the
sleigh bells at midnight, and, peering from his window, had caught a
glimpse of the party turning south at the cross-roads.
"Jest as I thought!" exclaimed Anderson. "They went south so's to skip
Boggs City. Boys, they've got her body er 'Rast's body er that other
feller's body with 'em, an' they're skootin' down this pike so's to get
to the big bridge. My idee is that they allowed to drop the body in the
river, which ain't friz plum over."
"Gee! We ain't expected to search all over the bottom of the river, are
we, Anderson?" shivered Isaac Porter, the pump repairer.
"_I_ ain't," said the leader, "but I can deputise anybody I want to."
And so they hurried on to the six-span bridge that crossed the ice-laden
river. As they stood silent, awed and shivering on the middle span,
staring down into the black water with its navy of swirling ice-chunks,
even the heart of Anderson Crow chilled and grew faint.
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