“Just this, Dick: I can’t believe that the outlaws have been able to gain so quickly on us. I wonder what has happened.”
“They must be ahead somewhere. We’ve followed them all the way. They couldn’t just disappear in thin air.”
Before replying, the corporal brushed the snow from a flat rock and sat down.
“That’s the natural hypothesis. But the facts don’t seem to bear it out.”
“You mean—”
“I mean,” said the policeman, “that we’ve been hoodwinked. They’ve contrived somehow to give us the slip. I’m positive we won’t find them ahead. Do you suppose we passed their camp during the night?”
CHAPTER XV
THE CORPORAL UPBRAIDS HIMSELF
During the ensuing consultation there appeared to be a diversity of opinion. Toma thought that they ought to retrace their steps in an attempt to find out where the outlaws had turned off the trail, while Dick still held to the belief that the pack-train must be somewhere ahead. As for Rand, he did not immediately declare himself. Sitting on the rock, his chin resting in his hands, he was immersed in deep thought. Nearly ten minutes elapsed before he looked up and addressed his two companions.
“I might as well be perfectly frank. I’m stuck. I must confess that I don’t know where the pack-train is. It may be behind or it may be ahead. If they—the outlaws—are ahead, I will say they’ve been moving faster than at any time since we left Settlement Mountain.”
Dick stood impatiently, hands on hips, one moccasined foot tracing patterns and queer hieroglyphics in the soft snow at the side of the trail. Toma’s face was inscrutable. What lay behind his mask-like features no one might guess. Another interval of silence—of inactivity. Finally Rand rose to his feet.