“What for? We’re only going further away all the time.”
“Then we may as well go back to the creek and wait.”
“All this long walk for nothing!” grumbled Joan. But she followed Julie nevertheless, and when they reached the brook they had recently crossed, the girls found two trails leading to it.
“I only saw one before,” said Joan.
“Because we were on that one,—but which one was it?”
“Coming from the left, to be sure. Would we be coming from the interior?” asked Joan, impatiently.
So they took the lefthand trail, although they really had come up by the other one, which led from the creek where their canoe was waiting.
“Jo, I believe both those trails were worn by animals going to the creek,” ventured Julie, as the idea suddenly came to her.
“Well, you said tourists would surely visit here and leave a trail!” Joan returned, jeeringly.
For once Julie made no reply in self-justification. The two scouts kept on hiking until they were so fatigued that they both felt like crying.