For awhile, the girls walked directly into the setting sun. The road was hemmed in on either side with stately evergreens which spiced the air with a pleasant fragrance. Presently, hearing a sound behind her, Judy looked back and was astonished to see a small dog following almost at her heels. She halted to coax him to her. He wagged his stub tail, and licked her hand affectionately.
“Why, Ardeth, it’s Pete!” she exclaimed.
“Not the milkman’s dog?”
“It’s the same dog, I’m sure. Do you suppose he jumped off the milk truck and is lost?”
“He doesn’t act lost,” Ardeth rejoined as the animal started on ahead of Judy. “In fact, he seems to know right where he’s going.”
“Maybe we should catch him,” Judy said doubtfully. “He might get lost in the woods.”
The two Scouts started after Pete, but the faster they hurried, the more distance the dog put between them. Now and then, he would pause to look back and bark, as if to tell them that he thoroughly enjoyed the game.
Presently the weed-grown private road came to a dead-end in a loop which permitted a car to turn around and retravel the route it had come. A weather-beaten signboard read: “To Calico Cave,” its painted arrow pointing up a rocky trail.
“Come back here, Pete!” Judy called. “Why, you little scamp!”
Paying not the slightest heed, the dog trotted up the trail.