“I’ll try it a short distance, anyway,” Clay answered, “and you, Case, remain on board and let Jule row up in the boat.”
This arrangement was carried out, and in a short time, the little boat was moving upstream, with Jule pulling cautiously at the oars. Clay found the bank a difficult one to ascend. He was obliged to wade through small creeks and climb rocky heights, but he kept steadily on his way, with Captain Joe at his heels.
At last, they came to a creek which ran into the river at the foot of the falls. On the south side of this creek, for some distance in, was a level, grassy plateau, and here Captain Joe picked up the scent they were looking for. The south bank showed that a boat had recently been drawn up there.
Disregarding, for the time being, all commands from the boy, the dog raced up the small stream, and finally disappeared in a thicket.
Clay hesitated, undecided as to whether he ought to follow the dog at once or return to notify Jule of his discovery and secure his assistance.
He had already lost sight of the dog, so he concluded that he might as well return to Jule. This he did, and in a short time, the boat was anchored at the mouth of the creek, and the boys were pressing on into the thicket. Captain Joe was nowhere in sight.
“They certainly are on this side of the creek,” Clay reasoned, “for they couldn’t very well make progress on the other side unless they traveled in an aeroplane.”
There were no tracks to follow, no indications of any one having passed that way recently, but the boys kept pluckily on, listening now and then for some sign from the dog.
“If he finds Alex,” Jule declared, “he’ll make a note of it, and we’ll hear a racket fit to wake the dead.”
“And that will warn the outlaws of our approach,” said Clay in a discouraged tone of voice. “Perhaps we did wrong to bring the dog.”