"All right then," continued Lil Artha; "if you'd kept your eyes about you all the while you'd seen that same thing at near every turn. Trying to cut short when he poled along, Johnny has left a track of his passage at every bend. I always look sharp, and I can tell as easy as falling off a log whether he went on, or cut into another passage. And Elmer will bear me out on that explanation, too!"
CHAPTER VIII
PICKING UP CLUES
The leader of the Wolf Patrol laughed when he heard Lil Artha make this remark.
"Every word that you are saying, Lil Artha, is the truth," he announced. "I've been watching those ragged edges of bushes myself. You see, the time might come after a while when I'd get mixed on the directions given by Johnny Spreen. Then I'd want to have some other scheme so as to find my way."
"But after a bit, Elmer, we'll get to a spot where Johnny changed his course from one day to another, as he went to different traps; how're we meaning to regulate our hunt then?" asked Toby.
"We've got to search the best way we can for the missing skiff," Elmer explained. "If only we can find it hauled up somewhere on the bank we'll know they went ashore at that point, don't you see?"
"Why, how eathy!" declared Ted, evidently lost in admiration for the simplicity of the scheme, that could never have occurred to him before.
"Oh! then, if that's the case I reckon we'd better not be making quite so much racket as we go along," said Mark.