"I'm going to hike home," Tom said.
"Far?"
"In Jersey, about twenty miles from the city."
"Some jaunt, eh?" Archer inquired pleasantly.
"I don't mind it," Tom said.
"What are you goin' home for?"
"Because I want to; because I'm finished," Tom said.
This ended the talk but it did not end Archer's rather curious study of Tom. He said little more, but as he rowed, he watched Tom with an intense and scrutinizing interest. And even after Tom had said good-bye to him and started up the trail through the woods, he rowed around, in the vicinity of the shore, keeping the boat in such position that he could follow Tom with his eyes as the latter followed the trail in and out among the trees.
"Humph," he said to himself; "funny."
What he thought funny was this: being an observant scout he had noticed that Tom carried more rations than a scout would be likely to take on a long hike, through a country where food could easily be bought in a hundred towns and villages, and also that one who limped as Tom did should choose to go on a hike of more than a hundred miles.