So the wide-awake scout finds opportunities to make use of the most ordinary and commonplace things to be met with in the woods.
Everything may have a meaning, if only the scout possesses the key of knowledge so necessary for the unlocking of the door.
Not moving a finger Elmer simply awaited the turn of events.
And not once did he doubt the outcome, so positive was he that his reasoning must be correct.
If the woman returned alone, he believed they ought to easily take her prisoner; but, on the other hand, should one or more of the men accompany her, he must expect the conditions to be changed, and alter his own plans in consequence.
Two minutes must have gone by now.
Elmer was not simply guessing this, or, as Lil Artha would say, "making a blind stab at it." He knew because, as he crouched there watching, he was continually marking the flight of time by counting to himself.
In imagination his gaze followed the swinging pendulum of the big grandfather clock that stood in the hall of his home.
"Tick, tick, tick!" he could see it go back and forth, each movement marking the passing of another second of precious time.
Ah! the squirrel had ceased to work at his nut now. He even gave signs of sudden alarm, as though his keen little ratlike ears had caught a foreign sound indicating the coming of a human being.