“I told you that fellow was the boss of the gang,” Bob declared after the little man had disappeared from his sight.  
“Well, didn’t say he wasn’t did I?”
 
“No. But I think you thought I was wrong.”
 
“But he seemed to have so little to say.”
 
“Oh, he’s a deep one all right if he is the leader.”
 
“I’ll say he is.”
 
“What do you think we’d better do now?”
 
“You say. Your the head of this expedition.”
 
“There’s no head to it,” Bob retorted. “You have just as much say as I do.”
 
“I know it, dear boy, but I know that your is better than mine.”
 
“Thanks, old man,” and Bob gave his brother’s hand a squeeze. “Now I’d like well to know where that fellow is going and who he’s going to meet but it’ll be terribly to follow him. I tell you he’s a keen one and if either or both of us ever get into his hands again it’ll go hard with us and we won’t get away so easily.”
 
“Mebby you call the last time easy but I thought it was pretty myself.”
 
“I mean comparatively. It was hard enough while it lasted.”
 
“I’ll say it was.”
 
“Well, what do you say? Shall we take the risk and follow him?”
 
“Why of course,” replied quickly as though there were no other course. “That’s what we are here for, isn’t it?”
 
“Good boy. I thought you’d say that. Now, Jack, I really think that this is the most serious thing we’ve ever been up against and we’ve simply got to be careful and take no unnecessary chances. We must not get caught. But we’d better get started or he’ll get so far away that we’ll lose him. We’ve got to skirt the top here and keep in the woods. It would never do to show ourselves on that open space.”
 
“Think we’ll be able to trail him?”
 
“I hope so but it’ll be no cinch. I wish Kemertok was here. He could do it easily but I reckon it’ll take all our knowledge of woodcraft.”
 
“But you managed to follow us the other day all right.”
 
“I know but four leave more of a trail than one and those branches you broke off helped a lot.”
 
“Only trouble was Tiny caught me at it and gave me a side the head that made me see stars and I didn’t dare try it again.”
 
While they were talking they had been going rapidly through the woods and now were on the other side of the peak where the man had disappeared.
 
“He went down just about here,” Bob said. “I noticed that he went just to the right of this spruce.”
 
“But he was mighty careful to leave no trail so far as I can see,” Jack declared.
 
“I expected that. This ground doesn’t leave much of an impression and we’ll have to do some hunting.” For some time they searched and at last Jack found a foot mark a short distance down the mountain.
 
“That shows that he probably went straight down,” Bob declared as he examined the mark.
 
But search as they might they could find no other trace.
 
“Guess we’ll have to go it blind for a while at least and trust to luck,” Bob said. “If we wait much longer he’ll have so long a start that we’ll never find him. We’ll go straight on down and keep our eyes peeled for clues.”
 
But it was not until they reached the foot of the range that they found another clue. Then Jack called his brother’s attention to a broken on a small bush.
 
“It’s a sure thing that that was broken not much over an hour ago. See, it is still wet with sap,” he said as he felt of the broken place.
 
“You’re right,” Bob agreed. “It sure was careless in him but a lucky thing for us. We’re on the right track so far at least. Now where do we go from here?”
 
“It’s six to one and half a dozen to the other, I guess, unless we can find another mark.”
 
“Which we’ve simply got to do. It was a fairly sure thing that he came directly down the mountain but where he went from here is another thing.” Luckily, a few minutes later Jack found another broken twig and Bob was in his praise.
 
“That gives us a pretty good idea of the direction he took and it’s fair to believe that he’ll keep in a straight line. Now the question is whether or not we can do the same.”
 
To keep a straight course through the trackless forest requires a degree of skill which few men possess. But the boys had learned the art from long training under their Indian tutor who was an . So it was with considerable confidence that they struck off. To their great satisfaction they found signs from time to time which showed them that they were on the right track. A broken twig here and the faint print of a foot there where a damp spot had retained the impression, were clues which were unmistakable to the trained eyes of the boys.
 
“He stopped here to get a drink,” Bob declared about three o’clock as he to a small spring at the foot of a big pine. “See, here’s where he kneeled down.”
 
“Can you tell anything about how long ago he was here?”
 
Bob knelt down and examined the marks closely.
 
“It’s pretty hard for me to judge, but from the way the leaves are pressed together, I should say that it wasn’t much over an hour ago. It’s not very damp right here and they ought to loosen up in a little more than that length of time. That’s according to Kemertok and you know what he says about such things is usually correct.”
 
“I’ll say it is. Then, if that’s right, we must be gaining on him a little.”
 
“I think we are and we want to keep our eyes peeled because he may be nearer than we think. And believe me we want to see him first.”
 
By five o’clock Bob calculated that they had made nearly fifteen miles since they had been trailing the little man.
 
“I’d sure like to know whether or not he’s going to reach where he’s going to to-night,” Bob said as he leaned against a tree and wiped his face.
 
“That last statement was a trifle involved but I think I get your meaning. Sorry I can’t give you the answer.”
 
“So am I. Are you tired?”
 
“Well, I’m not exactly what you’d call rested but I guess I can keep going awhile longer.”
 
“Well we’ll camp as soon as we come to a or spring.”
 
It was about a half hour later when Jack, who was some feet in the lead, held up his hand in warning. Bob stopped and in a moment Jack had come back to where he was waiting.
 
“What did you see?” Bob asked anxiously.
 
“Another one of those vanishing cabins, that is, it looked just like the others.”
 
“See any body?”
 
“Not a soul, but there’s smoke coming out of the chimney.”
 
“Then there’s some one there of course.”
 
“That was what I meant to imply.”
 
“Well, I guess it means that we’ve got to the end of our journey for to-night and it also means that we’ll have to eat a cold supper.”
 
“That’s it. Say something cheerful and then spoil it all. But I say, Bob, I’m going to keep an eye glued to that cabin and if it vanishes I’m going to see it go.”
 
“All right. Hope you succeed. But let’s look around and find a good place to camp. We don’t want to be too near and then again we don’t want to get so far away that you won’t be able to see it when it goes up.”
 
“So you think it goes up, eh?”
 
“Up or down, take your choice. I guess one’s about as likely as the other.”
 
They had been talking in tones and now they adopted Bob’s suggestion and began to look for a good place to spend the night. They found it after a search of a few minutes. About two hundred feet back in the woods from where Jack had seen the cabin was a thick of bushes nearly round and some twenty feet in diameter. Bob forced his way into them and in the center was an open space small to be sure but plenty large enough for them to stretch out at full length.
 
“I’ll bet we could stay there a month and never be seen,” he told Jack as he emerged.
 
It was, as Jack said, rather a dry supper they had that night but both agreed that it would not be safe to build a fire.
 
“I say, Bob, do you suppose they raise any bigger mosquitoes anywhere in the world than these are?” and Jack gave his face a slap.
 
Bob laughed.
 
“They’re pretty good sized but a fellow was telling me a few weeks ago about some that he saw up at Moxie Lake. He said that the of a camp there had six of them trained to ring the dinner bell. It seems that the bell was worked by a rope and at exactly meal time they would all light on the rope and their weight would pull it down. Then when it was down they would fly off and let it swing back again.”
 
“Some mosquitoes,” Jack laughed, “but I’ll bet it wouldn’t take more than three of these fellows to ring that bell. Lucky we brought along some citronella. And here goes for an application.”
 
“How about guard to-night, Bob?” he asked a few minutes later.
 
“How about that eye you were going to keep on the cabin?”
 
“That’s so. But there’s no need of both of us watching at the same time, and to-night I’m going to take first trick.”
 
“Yes and then when I come to look for you you’ll be gone.”
 
“Well, I reckon I’ve got a pair of lungs, and judging from past experience, I’m safer awake than asleep.”
 
“There may be something in that,” Bob agreed slowly as though he had something on his mind. “All right, you take the first watch and call me at twelve, or sooner if you get sleepy.”
 
“Wouldn’t wonder if we had rain before morning,” Jack declared a few minutes later as he glanced up at the sky which had become .
 
“Looks like it. If it does rain before twelve you’d better crawl in and let the old cabin disappear by its lonesome.”
 
It was nearly eight o’clock when Jack, having located a position where he could command a fair view of the cabin without danger of being seen, settled down to his long vigil. Soon it was so dark in the forest that he could see little more than the outline of the cabin and by the time an hour had passed even that had faded. Then soon after it began to rain, gently at first and then harder until it had settled to a steady downpour.
 
“Guess I might as well give it up,” he thought. “I can’t see a thing and it’s a cinch that if there’s anyone in that cabin they’ll stay there and not be prowling about the woods.”
 
He had seen no light in the cabin but he knew that that was no indication that there was no one there. Men go to bed early in the big woods unless they have business to keep them up and it would be nothing unusual for them to go before it was dark enough for a light. It took considerable groping about before he was able to locate the place where Bob was sleeping. He had a flashlight with him but did not dare use it for fear that the light might be seen by some one in the cabin.
 
“We’re taking no chances this time,” he muttered as he searched.
 
He was pretty wet by the time he had located the clump of bushes, but fortunately the night was warm and he did not mind it. Bob was curled up beneath a thin rubber blanket which was large enough to cover them both, and in another minute he was sharing it with him without having disturbed him.
 
Bob awoke at twelve o’clock, having set his mental alarm clock, as Jack called it, for that time.
 
“Hope Jack had sense enough to come in,” he thought as he heard the rain. “Good boy,” he added as he heard his deep breathing.
 
The rain was still falling when they awoke the next morning and there was no indication that it would clear soon.
 
“Cheerful, isn’t it?” Bob grinned.
 
“Oh, well, it might be worse,” Jack replied struggling to pull on a soggy shoe. “Think we dare risk a bit of a fire for breakfast?”
 
“Hardly, and I doubt if we could find anything dry enough even if we did dare.”
 
“All right. You’re the doctor, but some hot coffee sure would hit the right spot about now.” ............