“I know but four leave more of a trail than one and those branches you broke off helped a lot.”
“Only trouble was Tiny caught me at it and gave me a cuff side the head that made me see stars and I didn’t dare try it again.”
While they were talking they had been going rapidly through the woods and now were on the other side of the peak where the man had disappeared.
“He went down just about here,” Bob said. “I noticed that he went just to the right of this spruce.”
“But he was mighty careful to leave no trail so far as I can see,” Jack declared.
“I expected that. This ground doesn’t leave much of an impression and we’ll have to do some hunting.” For some time they searched and at last Jack found a foot mark a short distance down the mountain.
“That shows that he probably went straight down,” Bob declared as he examined the mark.
But search as they might they could find no other trace.
“Guess we’ll have to go it blind for a while at least and trust to luck,” Bob said. “If we wait much longer he’ll have so long a start that we’ll never find him. We’ll go straight on down and keep our eyes peeled for clues.”
But it was not until they reached the foot of the range that they found another clue. Then Jack called his brother’s attention to a broken twig on a small bush.