“And they’re close on us. Quick follow me. It’s our only chance.”
As he spoke he caught hold of a branch of a big spruce and quickly pulled himself up closely followed by Jack. They had hardly ascended half way to the top when they heard voices directly beneath them. So thick were the branches below that they were unable to see them but they had no trouble in recognizing Pierre and the man called Tiny. Whether or not the little man was with them they could not tell for, if he was, he did none of the talking.
The two men were speaking French, but although they talked rapidly and in low tones the boys had little difficulty in following the drift of the conversation. Pierre was insisting that they were on the right trail to catch them while Tiny argued that they were too far toward the east, maintaining that they would take the shortest way back to the camp. The former won the argument when he discovered a few crumbs of bread by the side of the spring, and Tiny acknowledged that he was right.
The boys, hiding in the branches of the tree hardly dared breathe for fear that the sharp ears of the men below would hear them. But the men never suspected that their quarry was directly over their heads and after a little more talk they started off. The boys waited a full half hour before they deemed it safe to return to the ground.
“They might take a notion to come back and we’d better play it safe,” Bob advised and Jack agreed.
“It seems funny that they didn’t notice that our trail ends here.” Jack whispered.
“I was afraid of that but it’s pretty hard to follow a trail through these woods without a dog as I found out yesterday and I’m inclined to think that they just happened to stumble on us here.”
“I dare say you’re right,” Jack agreed. “But I wish they had said something to give us an idea which way they’re going.”
“Oh, they’ll make for the camp as fast as they can go hoping to catch us before we get there, and all we’ve got to do is to trail along behind and be careful not to catch up with them.”
“I guess it won’t be very hard not to do that last,” Jack declared as they made their way to the ground.