An hour later Ned and Nat, with Jack and Claud, started out in the Firebird, it having been decided that it would be best for all the boys to go together in the auto, as they could then cover any amount of ground, and not have to worry about Dorothy and Cologne. The two girls went their way in the cart, old Jeff, the horse, being looked upon as quite a competent guide.
It was really the first good opportunity that Dorothy had had to see the glories of the Maine woods, but what were they to her to-day? What mattered the long lines of spruce, the dainty larch, or the tangled arbor-vitae, to her now?
To all Cologne's enthusiastic efforts to point out these beauties, as well as to distract Dorothy, she only answered with the most vague acquiescence.
"If we don't find her to-day——" she faltered.
"But we shall," insisted Cologne. "I feel it! Tavia will be back at camp for supper!"
"Are we far from camp now?" asked Dorothy, looking along the fir-lined road to the wilderness beyond.
"No, we are only just around the bend. Would you like to get out and walk? I think I hear the honk of the Firebird."
"I believe I would like to walk," said Dorothy. "I have such a—stagnant feeling. The walk in this air ought to dispel it."
"Suppose we tie Jeff up here, and let him graze, while I go over to that camp"—indicating a white speck between the trees—"and then I may inquire if any one has seen a girl like Tavia pass up Oldtown way?"
"And I might take the other direction, and ask at those camps. I see quite a colony over that way," said Dorothy.