He knelt down to examine the footprint.
“P’raps he’s doubled back on his tracks, to throw us off,” suggested Saunders, who was himself an expert on the trails of all the wild creatures.
“No,” replied Blackstock, “I’ve watched out for that sharp.”
“P’raps he’s give a big jump to one side or t’other, to break his trail,” said MacDonald.
“No,” said Blackstock with decision, “nor that neither, Mac. This here print is even. Ef he’d jumped to one side or the other, it would be dug in on that side, and ef he’d jumped forrard, it would be hard down at the toe. It fair beats me!”
Stepping carefully, foot by foot, he examined the ground minutely over a half circle of a dozen yards to his front. He sent out his followers—all but Big Andy, who, being no trailer, was bidden to stand fast—to either side and to the rear, crawling like ferrets and interrogating every grass tuft, in vain. The trail had simply stopped with that one footprint. It was as if Black Dan had dissolved into a miasma, and floated off.
At last Blackstock called the party in, and around the solitary footprint they all sat down and smoked. One after another they made suggestions, but each suggestion had its futility revealed and sealed by a stony stare from Blackstock, and was no more befriended by its author.
At last Blackstock rose to his feet, and gave a hitch to his belt.
“I don’t mind tellin’ ye, boys,” said he, “it beats me fair. But one thing’s plain enough, Black Dan ain’t here, an’ he ain’t likely to come here lookin’ for us. Spread out now, an’ we’ll work on ahead, an’ see ef we can’t pick up somethin’. You, Big Andy, you keep right along behind me. There’s an explanation to everything—an’ we’ll find this out afore long, or my name’s Dennis.”
Over the next three or four hundred yards, however, nothing of significance was discovered by any of the party. Then, breaking through a dense screen of branches, Blackstock came upon the face of a rocky knoll, so steep, at that point, that hands and feet together would be needed to climb it. Casting his eyes upwards, he saw what looked like the entrance to a little cave.