CHAPTER XIX.
THE SILENT VIDETTE.
"Shall we go back the same way we came up?" asked Thad, as they made a start toward returning to the camp down below.
"I think I'd like to try another route," Bob replied. "Some of those places we hit were pretty tough climbing; and you know it's always harder going down, than up a mountain. Seems to me we'll strike an easier way over to the right here."
"My opinion exactly," Thad declared, ready to fall in with anything which the other proposed, because he was interested heart and soul in the work Bob had cut out for himself—trying to bring more of happiness into the life of little Bertha, his cousin; and finding out whether his long-lost father was still in the land of the living.
They had gone about half of the way, and found that, just as Bob guessed, it was much easier than the other route would have proven, when Thad made a discovery that gave him a little thrill.
"There's a man, Bob!" he exclaimed, suddenly.
"Where?" demanded the other, turning his head around; for he happened to be a trifle in advance of his companion at the time.
"Over yonder, on that rock, and of course with a rifle in sight; for you never see one of these mountaineers without that. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that some of them go to bed with their guns in their arms. Do you see him now, Bob?"