They listened attentively. A stick cracked as a heavy foot trod on it. In the fitful firelight’s gleam they could see three shadowy figures crossing the creek.
“Tom?” Virginia called uncertainly.
“All safe,” Tom’s hearty voice assured her.
“But where is the bandit?” Valerie asked excitedly.
“That’s what we’d like to know,” grumbled Tom. “We searched that place all through but there was no one in there.”
“But we did see him,” Phyllis insisted. “He must have escaped before you got there.”
“That’s what we figgered,” Jim put in. “We found footprints of a man, but escaping the law seems to be that fella’s strong point.”
“He won’t escape all the time,” murmured the deputy. “We’ll catch up with him some day.”
The girls, Virginia and Gale, warmed the supper for the three men and before they all turned in for the night, the deputy took his leave, declaring he could not spend the night at their campfire, but had to be miles away by morning.
The girls slept peacefully and dreamlessly, storing up energy for the day’s ride ahead of them, for it was Tom and Jim’s plan to continue on to a new camp site the next day.