"All right. Go to sleep now, or you'll all over-sleep," laughed the Captain from her tent.
But there was no need of an alarm clock. The girls were up half an hour before it rang, and were impatiently waiting for the arrival of their instructor in tracking. Some of the scouts had gone into the bushes to begin a search, but had found nothing.
It took but a few moments after Mr. Gilroy arrived to outline his plans for the work and fun. "We will scatter in couples to hunt for any sort of track whatever. The first couple that discovers any genuine track must call out, then we all will run and study it for what it is, or where it leads to. Now, pair off, scouts, but the Captain and I will follow at a distance and hurry to the first pair who find a track."
"There are nine of us—how about the odd one?" asked Julie.
"Let the three youngest go together," returned the Captain. So Amy, Betty and Judith hunted in trio.
It was a "still hunt" for a time, since every one was too intent on finding a track to speak. Most of the scouts took to the dense bushes and woods, but the Leader sought in a clearing and was the first to summon the others.
"Oh, come, every one! We've found a great big track!" called Julie, as she and her companion knelt to inspect the prints.
Every one raced wildly to the clearing, and, sure enough, there were hoof prints distinctly marked in the soil. The trail led across the clearing into the dense forest.
"Aren't they big?" excitedly asked Joan.
"They're made by a deer!" said Julie, boastfully.