“Do you boys know exactly where we are going?” asked Lil. They had walked a long distance since the distribution of burdens and now had come to a place where the trail went directly down the mountainside.
“Of course we do! Josh said that when we got to a place where the path suddenly went down we were almost over the cabin where Jude Hanford lives. Didn’t he, Frank?”
“He sure did!”
“But there was a place back further where a path forked off. I saw it, didn’t you, Lucy?”
“Yes, but I thought it was maybe just a washed place.”
“This is right, I’m sure,” said Skeeter confidently, so the young people clambered down the mountainside following Skeeter’s lead. The path went almost exactly perpendicularly down the mountain for fifty yards and then, as is the way with mountain paths, it changed its mind and started up the mountain again.
“This is a terribly silly path,” declared the self-constituted guide, “but I reckon it will start down again soon. Josh said that Jude Hanford lives almost at the foot of the mountain.”
“Let’s keep a-going; there’s no use in turning back,” said Frank. “This path is obliged to lead somewhere.”
“Maybe it leads to the brigand’s cave,” shivered Lil.
“Which way is home?” asked Lucy.