"I reckon it's near enough so that some of his gang's apt to wander out this way most anytime."
"Meaning that from now on we want to be doubly careful."
"Meaning exactly that."
"Careful's my middle name from now on," Jack assured him.
"But what I can't make out is why we haven't crossed the Crotch trail before this, Bob mused.
"But we've made so many turns that like as not we've been going parallel with it a good part of the time," Jack suggested.
"You must be right, I reckon," Bob agreed.
They were going down hill now in a direction, so nearly as they could judge, away from the ranch. Huge trees, growing so closely together that their branches interlocked, lined both sides of the trail which except for the large and small rocks which were numerous, had been worn smooth by the passage of many cattle.
"I'd sure like to know where this trail starts," Bob declared a few minutes later.
"Well, the beginning of it must be mighty well hidden wherever it is or someone would have picked it up long before this. It's plain enough along here," Jack declared.