"We'll all go, so as to spread out considerable," suggested X-Ray Tyson, who, truth to tell, was a little afraid of being left to look after things at the lodge. "I'm needed because I've got the sharpest eyes; Ethan might have a chance to bring some of his woodcraft into play; Phil is the one to run things; and Lub, well, he spoke first, and ought to have a show."
"Knowing what we'll be up against," said Phil, "we can arrange accordingly, so when we get back we'll have something dry to put on. Before we start we'll get Mr.—Mr. Newton out, and fixed before the fire, so he can feed it as often as he pleases."
The man had flushed when Phil purposely hesitated about calling the name that had been given in that message.
"Call me Alwyn Merriwell from now on," he hastily told them. "That is my real name. The time has passed for all deceit and assumed names. I have made up my mind to do what is right for—for the other party, no matter what pain and suffering it brings to me."
A short time later the boys began to prepare to start out. Phil saw that their injured guest was really working himself up into a fever over the anxiety he was enduring. His thoughts during the night had had a strong effect upon him. He may even have dreamed something dreadful had really happened, and it haunted him.
Acting on Phil's advice the others dressed lightly. This would allow of leaving certain parts of their clothing behind, to be resumed on their return.
"We will be moving all the time, and can keep warm enough, even while wet to the skin," he told them, as they started forth, after saying good-by to Mazie, who was content to sit alongside her "daddy," holding his hand, and prattling constantly as was her pretty way.
Phil had managed to cover his little camera, so that he could take it along.
"Like as not we'll run across some effects of the hurricane that we'd like to remember," he explained, when X-Ray looked questioningly at the camera. "There must be places where trees have been thrown down in all sorts of twisted shapes; and those sort of things always make the boss pictures, you know."
They followed the trail. It was very faint in many places; but then Ethan could be depended on to find it whenever a cry arose that it was lost. Phil, too, had his bearings pretty well in hand, though as a rule he allowed Ethan to swing things, for he saw that it was giving him no end of pleasure to thus exercise his knowledge of woodcraft.