“Why alone?”
“Simply because one stands less risk of getting caught than two.”
“Well I can’t say I like the idea much but what you say goes.”
“I’ll be back before dark if nothing happens,” Bob promised as he started off.
Beyond the place where the cabin had stood the trees grew far apart and there was no underbrush, making traveling easy but leaving no traces. Thus he was unable to find any signs of anyone having passed. This did not discourage him as he hardly expected it. He made rapid time relying on his keen hearing to tell him should he overtake the men he was trailing. He was not sure by any means that he was going in the right direction but he was taking a chance on keeping near the border line. He calculated that he had made nearly ten miles when the forest began to be more dense. Tall spruces and straight pines grew closely together and there was now considerable underbrush making it necessary for him to slow up.
This, however, did not worry him as he reasoned that, if he had to go slowly, so would the men in front of him, that is, if they were in front.
“I ought to be pretty near up to them by this time,” he told himself as he stopped to listen a little later, “that is provided I’m on the right track.”
Several times during the last half hour he had seen marks which told him that someone had passed that way not long before but he could not be sure that it was his party. But the signs had encouraged him to keep on and suddenly he heard the sound of voices just a short distance ahead. He stopped to listen. From the sound several men were talking although he was not near enough to catch any words.
“Sounds as though they were having a dispute about something,” he thought as he softly crept nearer.
It was evident that the party ahead had stopped, perhaps for the night, and he hoped to get near enough to be able to hear what they were talking about. He had taken about ten steps when he heard a loud snap and something gripped him firmly by the leg. He knew only too well what it was. He was caught in a bear trap, probably set by some trapper and either lost or forgotten.