“It’s a sure thing that that was broken not much over an hour ago. See, it is still wet with sap,” he said as he felt of the broken place.
“You’re right,” Bob agreed. “It sure was careless in him but a lucky thing for us. We’re on the right track so far at least. Now where do we go from here?”
“It’s six to one and half a dozen to the other, I guess, unless we can find another mark.”
“Which we’ve simply got to do. It was a fairly sure thing that he came directly down the mountain but where he went from here is another thing.” Luckily, a few minutes later Jack found another broken twig and Bob was emphatic in his praise.
“That gives us a pretty good idea of the direction he took and it’s fair to believe that he’ll keep in a straight line. Now the question is whether or not we can do the same.”
To keep a straight course through the trackless forest requires a degree of skill which few men possess. But the boys had learned the art from long training under their Indian tutor who was an adept. So it was with considerable confidence that they struck off. To their great satisfaction they found signs from time to time which showed them that they were on the right track. A broken twig here and the faint print of a foot there where a damp spot had retained the impression, were clues which were unmistakable to the trained eyes of the boys.
“He stopped here to get a drink,” Bob declared about three o’clock as he pointed to a small spring at the foot of a big pine. “See, here’s where he kneeled down.”
“Can you tell anything about how long ago he was here?”
Bob knelt down and examined the marks closely.
“It’s pretty hard for me to judge, but from the way the leaves are pressed together, I should say that it wasn’t much over an hour ago. It’s not very damp right here and they ought to loosen up in a little more than that length of time. That’s according to Kemertok and you know what he says about such things is usually correct.”