"Oh, there's nothing the matter with me. I am trying to help you, that's all."
"Shake, pard. I didn't mean to be edgewise with you. I'm mad plumb through over that dog business. You're the smartest youngster I've ever come up with and I'll take off my hat to you when I get it on again."
"Here, I'll lend you mine," offered Stacy, reaching his own sombrero toward the prospector.
"I shake my own bonnet, not the other fellow's," grinned Jim. The others laughed at the fat boy's drollery.
"Why do you say there is no need to follow the trail, Tad?" spoke up Professor Zepplin at this juncture.
"For the good reason that there is no trail to follow," was Tad's brief reply.
The party did not understand what he meant by that, and Dunkan asked him to explain.
"I have run the trail out," announced Butler. "Some twenty rods from here the trail practically ends."
"How can that be?" interjected Sam.
"It is all hard rocks there for some distance and not a tree, hardly a shrub. The fellow went straight up the rocks. I know this because he trampled down a berry vine when he climbed up the rocks. That is the end of the trail. He may have gone in any direction from that point. I followed out several leads, but they came to nothing. I am sure that I should be able to pick up the trail somewhere were I to spend enough time at it. I will try it after breakfast if you want me to. Breakfast is getting cold. We'd better get back."