"Sure I did; but it was only to tell you I was feeling as empty as a sugar barrel that's been scraped clean. When do we get a snack, I'd like to know?" Nat replied, rubbing the pit of his stomach as if to indicate its state of emptiness.
"Well, if that ain't the worst cheek I ever struck," growled Toby; "to stop us just when my machine had got into its best stride, and was humming most beautifully!"
"Oh, come off your perch!" cried Nat. "I didn't stop you—never dreamed of such a thing. It was an accident, that's all."
"Never mind," remarked Elmer, as he prepared to mount again. "Not much time lost, and I've made sure that Lil Artha has gone along here, with the car in front of him!"
"What's that?" asked Toby, hardly understanding.
"Why, I've seen a place where our chum's footprint is marked in the tread the automobile tire made in the half-hard mud. That tells as plain as print the car must have passed him back here a little; for if he was not coming after it he could not have stepped in the trail left by the tire," Elmer went on, calmly.
"Oh, yes, I see now what you mean, Elmer; and as sure as you live it's a mighty clever idea. Takes you to think up all those things. That's what you learned when you were out there on the plains, didn't you?" Toby remarked.
"Of course," was all the scout leader replied; but he could not help thinking that in the case of some fellows it would be necessary for them to have about fifty years' experience out West before they could grasp the true meaning of clews and trails and such things.
"Is there any need now for us to look out, and try to find traces of a scrap?" asked Nat, as he balanced his machine and prepared to start.
"You might as well keep it up," came the answer.