YOUNG WOODSMEN ON THE TRAIL
It was a happy lot of boys that gathered in the camp of the Pony
Rider Boys that night. They sat down to a full meal once more, and
Stacy Brown's "weak heart" was forgotten in the general good cheer.
After supper the question of their future movements came up for
discussion. Cale decided that if the others were agreeable, the main
party had better move on to the woods, leaving someone there to bring
the money when the remittance should have arrived from home.
Professor Zepplin suggested that Charlie John might stay in town to
wait for the money, but Cale did not like the idea. He asked Tad how
he would like the job.
"Fine," glowed the freckle-faced boy.
"But how could he find us?" protested Professor Zepplin.
"The same as any good woodsman would. Follow the trail."
"I'll stay with him. If he can't find the trail, I can," spoke up
Chunky.
"I pity Tad if you remain with him," answered Rector.
"I will blaze the trail so they can't miss it, Professor. We shall
have three or four days for exploration before Butler and Brown get
in, then we will move on. By the way, Master Tad, when you get your
money you might drop into the bank and take up that note if you wish.
If it is going to make you short, of course the note may stand until
I get back."
"Take it up, by all means," ordered the Professor. "The favor has
been a big one to us. We shall never forget it."
"Then you are going to take a new trail from here?" asked Tad.
"Yes. We will follow the trail you took in coming in here for, say
five miles, after which we shall branch off. You will find the
turning-off place clearly marked."
"Oh, I will see that he doesn't get lost," declared Chunky. "You
leave it all to me."
"Yes, if you are looking for trouble, leave it to Chunky," retorted
Ned.
The plans were laid in detail that night. At daybreak on the
following morning Tad Butler and Stacy Brown saw their companions
riding away. The two boys watched them until the party had
disappeared, all waving their hats at the lads who had been left
behind.
"Now, Chunky, you are in my charge. If you don't behave yourself, I
shall be under the painful necessity of giving you a thrashing."
"You bet it will be painful for you if you try it," retorted the fat
boy.
"I certainly shall try it if you give me cause. See if you can't act
like other folks."
"I don't want to be like other folks. I'm satisfied to be Stacy
Brown."
"I reckon you will be that as long as you live. And there's only
one Stacy," answered Tad laughingly. "But remember, you are not in
favor with Squire Halliday," warned the boy.
It was four days after the departure of their companions when the
remittance came, Banker Perkins having wired to a bank in Bangor to
hasten funds to the boys at Matungamook, thus saving at least two
days for them. Tad cashed the draft at the bank and took up Cale
Vaughn's note as arranged, after which the boys packed their kits and
set out for the trail into the wilderness.
Neither boy was at all apprehensive about his ability to find the
way. Tad knew that he should find the trail plainly marked, and he
did. Along about noon they found the point where the two trails
diverged and halted there for a bit to eat, and to give their ponies
a rest.
The journey to the place where the others were to camp was fully
thirty miles farther in. It was a long jaunt for two boys, but
Vaughn had perfect confidence in Tad's ability to follow the trail.
After resting for an hour the boys continued until night. They made
camp before dark, building a fire and constructing a small lean-to,
not having their tents with them. They were as handy at taking care
of themselves as if they had been in the woods all of their lives.
Stacy Brown appeared to have turned over a new leaf. He worked like
a good fellow. There was now no toil about the camp too hard for the
fat boy.
They lay down to sleep early in the evening after piling plenty of
wood on the fire, and slept soundly until daybreak. A quick
breakfast and they were off.
"There is the trail," said Stacy, pointing a blaze on a big spruce.
Tad glanced about him inquiringly before starting. He saw that the
blazed trail took a bend at that point, branching off to the right a
little. This did not arouse any suspicion in his mind, for he did
not know the route taken by Cale Vaughn, depending wholly on the
blazes and other trail marks.
All that day they continued on their journey. Tad decided that they
should reach the camp early on the following forenoon.
Instead of reaching the camp in the morning, the following night
found them still following the trail. Tad was somewhat troubled when
they made camp that night. Still, the camp might be much farther
from town than Cale had thought. The boys consulted and decided to
go on.
That night they found a campfire, or rather the remains of one. The
fire was two or three days old and the small greens were trampled
down about the place as if quite a party had camped there. This
encouraged the boys, and next morning they went on with renewed
courage. They kept on going until the morning of the fourth day when
the trail brought up abruptly at the side of a small lake. There it
ended.
"Well, we seem to be in something of a quandary, Chunky," said Tad.
"It looks that way. What are you going to do?"
"Follow the shore of the lake around until I find the trail again,"
answered Butler confidently. "They must have landed somewhere. It
looks to me as if they had swum their horses over, though I don't see
any hoof-marks on the shore. That is what puzzles me."
"Giddap," said Stacy in answer. The boys started to encircle the
lake. In order to do so, they were obliged to work back into the
forest some distance at one point, traveling more than a mile in what
they supposed was a direction parallel to the lake.
At last they came out on the shore again, and Tad gazed in amazement.
"Stacy," he said, "do you see anything peculiar about this body of
water?"
"Well," answered the fat boy wisely, "it appears to have shrunk some
since we saw it last."
"That is what I think. There is something peculiar about it. It
doesn't look to me like the same body of water."
"Oh, yes it is. It's the same old pond."
"Then we will complete our circuit of it if we can. Wouldn't it be
funny if we got lost?"
"Not to me, it wouldn't. I can get along without that."
The boys had got around to the opposite side of the lake when Tad
cried out joyously.
"There's a blaze," pointing to a tree from which the bark had been
cut.
"I see it," answered Stacy. "They think they are playing a mighty
smart trick on us, don't they?"
"It looks that way."
[Illustration: "We're lost!"]
With light hearts the boys started on the new trail. It proved an
easy one to follow, though they had begun to wonder if they ever were
going to reach their destination. By the sun Butler kept the general
direction in which they were traveling pretty well in mind. He did
not think for a moment that he was on the wrong trail.
As a matter of fact another party had, in the meantime, followed the
trail from the village, taking Cale's blazes to the point where they
eventually turned off. It was this branch made by the strange party
that Tad and Stacy had followed to the first lake. They were many,
many miles from the camp of their fellows. What was still worse,
they were now on yet another trail, a trail all of a year old. After
a time that trail, too, ended abruptly. In trying to pick it up, or
its continuation, the boys lost it altogether, nor did they find it
again. Tad called a halt and getting from his pony sat down on a
log.
"Are we lost?" asked Chunky solemnly.
"We are," answered Tad with equal solemnity.