Keeping under cover of ridges, sneaking through depressions in the broken surface, the boys moved toward the spot indicated by Case. In a few moments they saw that the three men were bearing farther away to the north and east. This fact relieved their minds of the suspense which the sight of the advancing men had occasioned, and they made more open progress.
Directly they came to the camp itself, and were delighted to see that it was shut out of view from the direction taken by the men by a rocky ledge.
It was a primitive camp, with boughs dragged up from below serving as beds. The number of empty food tins scattered about indicated that it had been in use number of days.
A great coat, ragged and soiled, yet still valuable in that exposed position because of its thickness and evident warmth, lay on a rock near the embers of a dying fire. After glancing carefully around to see that they were still out of sight of the men, Alex picked the garment up and began a search through the pockets, still whole and mostly empty.
“Have you any idea they left their cards in there?” grinned Case.
“Never can tell,” replied the other. “Sometimes people leave things in pockets. Anyway there may be a tailor’s label on the coat which will tell us where it came from.”
He drew out a paper as he spoke and tossed it to one side with the remark that they were saving up fire-lighters.
“Now, don’t throw that newspaper away,” Case protested. “Hand it here! It may show the town they visited last. Calgary, date, eh?”
“How old is it?” asked Alex at once interested. “When was it printed, I mean. That may tell us something.”
“A week ago,” was the reply. “They must have secured it at Donald or Beaver, for that matter. It will be new to us, anyhow, whatever date it is. Not much of a newspaper, after all, though.”