“I hardly hope to rejoin Mr. King,” said Dave. “I think I can keep the general direction of the Albatross in view. What I say is to brace up and keep steadily ahead for a few hours, and see if we don’t come across something encouraging. There’s a full moon, you know. Besides, at night we could make out lights at a distance. You see, even if we fail, we can surely get back to the airship.”
“Not if we lose our reckoning.”
“Yes, even then,” persisted Dave.
“How can we?”
“Why, I heard Professor Leblance tell Mr. King that if we did not return by midnight, he would have the big searchlight on the Albatross at work.”
“That’s grand!” cried Hiram, bracing up magically. “We can see the searchlight for a good many miles, you know.”
The wayfarers threaded several tortuous valleys. They reasoned that if they could get out of the mountains they were sure to come upon some little farm. It was near dusk when Hiram, who was a little in advance of Dave, shouted suddenly:
“Here’s something!”
“What is it?” questioned our hero, hurrying up to where he stood.
His companion held up what looked like a broken tree branch, only the bark had been peeled off from it, and one end had evidently been fashioned into a handle with a pocket knife.