“We’ve tried that dozens of times,� was Patsy’s despondent interjection.
“Will you listen to me? I say we’ll follow him. He nearly always goes by Larkland, to get a pigeon; then he comes back to the public road and he goes up Jones’s hill. We know that, for we’ve followed him that far. Well! Next time we see him getting ready to go, we’ll stroll to the mill and stop, as if we just meant to visit Cousin Giles; then, while Dick’s at Larkland, we’ll run along and hide in the pines where he gave us the slip that first time. You remember?�
Patsy emphatically did.
“And then we’ll follow him. He’ll not be expecting us there, and we’ll be careful to keep out of recognizing distance. If he gets away, we’ll come back home and not let him know we followed him. And the next time, we’ll race ahead and hide at the place where we lost sight of him, and follow him from there.�
“Oh! I see!� said Patsy. “We are to course him just like the bees.�
“Oh! you see; at last!� laughed Anne. “Maybe we’ll find out the very first time; or we may have to follow him again and again. Oh, it’ll be lots and loads of fun!�
The girls were on tiptoe with impatience, and rejoiced mightily when they saw Dick put a candle into his pocket the next Saturday afternoon. They went at once to the mill; presently they saw him take the path to Larkland, and they ran ahead and dived into the pine woods where he had hidden on that well-remembered April day. Half an hour later, Dick came whistling along the road, and they crept from their hiding place and followed at a cautious distance for about three quarters of a mile; then they lost sight of him at a turn of the Old Plank Road. Anne stopped.
“Come on,� said Patsy, keen on pursuit. “There aren’t any paths here; of course he went on down the road.�
“He may have turned off in the woods,� said Anne. “The thing to do is to course him, follow him as far as we see him. Oh, it’s such fun!�
“It certainly is,� agreed Patsy. “We’ve followed him a long way. Why, we’re over two miles from The Village. It’s out here somewhere in the Big Woods that Solomon Gabe lives.�