"Ha! I found 'em! plain as day. Come and follow!" called she. And off she started.
Not more than a dozen yards along the top of the bank she found the tracks go down again; and through the brook she went, up the other side, and back to the brush-clearing on a new trail, following the cloven-footed tracks. Out on the hard trail they were lost.
"Now, that makes two I've trailed and lost. It's a shame!" cried Julie, stamping her foot.
"'Better to have trailed and lost than never to have found at all,'" misquoted Mrs. Vernon, laughingly.
"If the first one was a deer, this second one must have been a little fawn," said Judith.
"Is there any other animal that wears hoofs?" asked Ruth, of no one in particular.
Now, Mr. Gilroy must have dreaded the reply, for he quickly changed the subject. "How many of you brought the plaster and bottle of water?" Every one had.
"Well, why not make a little cast of both the tracks you do not recognize and then compare them with those in the book when we go back to camp?"
This sounded fine, so the scouts were soon busy making casts of the tracks. When hard, they were handed to the Captain and Mr. Gilroy to carry carefully until they all reached camp.
Quite near the camp ground Hester made a discovery. "Oh, come and see! Here is something with toes. As big as a wildcat, or maybe a little bear!"