They waited for fully fifteen minutes before either Tom or Jim came into sight. The horses had caught the impatience of their riders and were fidgeting to be off.
“We thought you had deserted us for sure!” Virginia declared. “Where were you?”
To Gale it seemed that the two men had the air of conspirators. There was a gleam in their eyes that had not been there before. The minute they came within earshot of the girls they stopped talking and came on silently.
“Virginia,” Tom said immediately, “we want you to lead the girls to Bear Rock and have lunch. Wait there for us.”
“But where are you going?” Virginia demanded.
“Jim has found a trail that looks strange so we are going to follow it,” Tom explained. “But we’ll catch up to you at Bear Rock. You camp there until we come, understand?”
“No,” Virginia said firmly. “I don’t understand. What is so strange about this trail? Why can’t we all ride that way?”
“We couldn’t follow the trail with all of you along,” Tom declared. “It would be obliterated in no time.”
“But, Tom, if we get lost up here we could never find each other again,” Virginia continued.
“But Miss Virginia, you’ve been to Bear Rock lots of times,” Jim put in. “Yore Dad would want us to follow this trail, too. It shore looks mighty strange. You won’t get lost.”