"It looks that way," admitted the other. "Here you see one of the impressions has stopped short only a few inches from the door, as if the man stood here listening before stepping in, after carefully removing the piece of rope we fixed to hold the door shut from the outside."
"But how do you know that that impression wasn't made twenty-four hours ago?" asked Bud, who was sitting cross-legged close by and listening to their talk, even while he worked at his broken wing tip.
"Nothing could be easier," replied Hugh. "Here's the foot mark I purposely made when I came out of the cabin last, and you can see that he stepped into the same place. That tells us he was here afterward. Get that, don't you, Bud?"
"I'd be a donkey if I didn't, and not worthy of being called a scout," the other boy remarked with scathing emphasis. "Fact is, if my mind wasn't so much wrapped up with this aeroplane stability device, I couldn't have missed seeing that little trick myself if I'd looked the ground over; because that happens to be one of the first things I ever learned about tracking and trailing."
"Even if the sneak didn't get anything worth while," Ralph continued indignantly, "the fact that they seem to be hanging out around here seems to tell that they must have a good reason for it all. The more I get to thinking about it, the less I feel like saying we'd better let the thing alone because it doesn't concern us. When things come to such a pass that unknown persons even sneak into your cabin in your absence and steal what they believe to be valuable papers, it's high time to take a hand in the business. And if while we're wandering around here we happen to run across those two men, I'll feel like asking what they mean by poking their noses into Bud's private business."
"Hear! hear!" said Bud, pretending to clap his hands; "that's the sort of a chum to stack up with. Ralph's the kind to stick to a fellow through thick and thin. And please inform that taller walking mystery for me, Ralph, that I feel like telling him to his face that he's a thief. Will, too, if ever I get half a chance."
Pretty soon Hugh and Ralph changed the subject of conversation and wandered off together, talking earnestly about the habits of muskrats and mink and otter. It was pretty late in the year to do much in the way of tracking, but Ralph knew several places along a nearby stream where he had often caught mink that were using the burrows; and he was anxious to show his friend certain things in connection with the habits of the sleek animals, the skins of which were always in such good demand for furs.
They had a joyous time together, because both were animated by the same sort of desire to know all that could be learned of wild animal life. Hugh's scout education had given him a pretty good insight into these things; but he knew the relative value of book learning and practical experience, and never let an opportunity to see for himself slip past.
At no time did they wander far afield. And as certain signals had been arranged with Bud, whereby he could summon them to his assistance in case there was any symptom of impending trouble, there did not seem to be any need of worry.
Once in so often they would walk back to the near vicinity of the shack; and on discovering Bud there, busily engaged in mending his disabled aeroplane model, they considered that they could saunter off again to investigate further into the secrets of wood and swamp, the latter now half frozen over in the cold late November atmosphere.