"Well, I never knew that before! We've learned two things by being lost with Dick as guide," said Julie frankly, and Dick was delighted to hear such nice things about himself.
"Shall we try to circle this fen and get across, or go back again?" now asked Dick.
"It's hard to tell just what is best to do," murmured Julie, puckering her brow in thought.
Suddenly two shots echoed down the mountainside, and after an interval of six seconds a third shot rang out.
"There! Alec's seen our smoke. His signal means 'Where are you?' What shall we do?" cried Dick, excitedly.
"How can we answer them?" wondered the girls.
"We'll have to back-trail to our clearing. That's where the shots sounded from," said Dick.
"Dear me, if only we had waited there, they would have found us," complained Judith.
"But we didn't, so the next best thing to do is to get back as soon as we can, or they'll go away again," declared Julie.
They climbed, scrambled and tumbled up the rugged slope, keeping as far as they could to the rough trail they had made in coming down. When they thought they were near the clearing, they shouted with all their lung-power, and the welcome sound of answering calls soon greeted their ears.