"You might get there, if you kept on long enough!" admitted the other.
"But how far would we have to go?" demanded the incredulous Nat.
"Oh, about twenty-five thousand miles, more or less," chuckled Elmer.
"Gee, he's turned right around and is heading away from the road, that's what," declared Nat, laughing softly. "A nice guide you'd be, Toby, old chum. Think of us floundering deeper and deeper into these blessed old woods, when every minute is worth a heap to us right now!"
"But what did you let me do it for, Elmer?" complained the culprit.
"Well, you started off as if you wanted to show us what you know about woodcraft; and I thought the chance to open your eyes a little too good to be lost," Elmer replied.
"But we've wasted time by it," declared Toby, feeling disheartened.
"Only a minute or two, and that doesn't count much beside the lesson it may be to a couple of scouts I know," said Elmer.
"Tell us just how you know which way the road lies," said Nat.
"Oh, that is as easy as falling off a log," came the crushing reply. "I just kept my eyes about me when we were coming in, and noted that we were moving due east at the time, with the breeze exactly on our right, and you remember it was coming out of the south a bit ago. If it had been daylight I'd have known the points of the compass from the direction of the sun; or, that failing, by the moss that nearly always grows on the north side of the trunks of forest trees. There are many ways for a wide-awake boy to find out these things; but only when he keeps his wits about him all the time, and his eyes and ears open."