When the unfortunate German lad had vanished, the trouble was far from being at an end. He left a decided legacy behind him, and Landy was loud in his wails.
"How ever can we stand it, Elmer?" he asked. "All the rest of the time we stay in camp do we just have to endure that rank odor?"
"'What can't be cured must be endured,' you remember we used to write in our copybooks at school, Landy," replied the patrol leader. "Nothing like getting used to things, you know. It isn't pleasant, of course; but there might be worse happen to us. Suppose now our new recruit had run across a rattlesnake instead of a polecat! But get a hustle on you, fellows, and see if we can rig Adam out somehow. I've got an extra shirt he's welcome to."
"And there's that pair of trousers I brought along," said Landy; "he can get into them all right. But I'll say good-by when I hand 'em over; for I just know the perfume will stick always; and I never could stand it, never."
Some one else came forward with shoes, and in this fashion the wretched victim of confiding innocence and curiosity was supplied with an outfit calculated to carry him through.
Taking these things with him, Elmer started forth along the trail of Adam.
"Just follow your nose, and you'll find him!" sang out Landy.
"And look out you don't repeat his sad experience, Elmer," laughed Ty.
The woods seemed to be pretty strong with the powerful odor, as Elmer walked on. He was a fair hand at following a trail, and the German lad had certainly not made any effort to conceal his footprints.
Presently Elmer found where Adam had stuffed his garments into a hollow log, just as he had been told; but as he was no longer in sight, the scout patrol leader took it for granted that he had turned to head for the river again, in order to plunge in.