e hut, to the best of their knowledge, was
between four and six miles from Wharton. Finally it was decided that
they should turn around and go back slowly in order that the boys could
identify the spot where the automobile had met its mishap the afternoon
before. Clint was not at all certain that he would know the place when
he saw it again, but Amy stoutly asserted that he would recognise it at
once. And he did.

There, finally, was the quick turn in the road and beyond, still plainly
visible, the tracks of the auto in the looser soil and turf of the bank
and meadow.

"There's the tree we ran into," pointed out Amy, "and there's the field
we went across. Now let's see. We found a stream there; you can see it,
can't you? Then we followed along this side of it and up that sort
of hill--"

But beyond that he couldn't trace their wanderings. Woods and pastures
ran into each other confusingly. One thing was explained, however, or,
rather, two things; why they didn't find the trolley line and why they
didn't succeed in reaching the road again. The trolley line, the
chauffeur explained, was more than a mile distant, and the road ahead of
them turned widely to the left just beyond. They had, consequently,
roamed over a stretch of country at least two miles broad between dirt
road and railroad. When they went on, which they did very slowly, all
hands peered intently along the right side of the highway. They had
proceeded possibly three-quarters of a mile when one of the officers
called out and the car stopped.

"I think I saw it," he said. "Anyway, there's something there. Back up a
little, Tom." The chauffeur obeyed and the quest was at an end. There
was the hut, but so hidden by young oak trees with russet leaves still
hanging that only from one point was it noticeable. Out they all piled.

"Now," said the Chief, "you boys get in there and stand just where you
did last night and then come out and indicate about where those fellows
dug--if they did dig."

Clint and Amy obeyed and the others followed slowly across the
intervening space. The hut stood further from the road than it had
seemed to in the night. A good thirty yards separated the two, and the
yellowing turf of long meadow grass was interspersed here and there with
clumps of goldenrod and asters and wild shrubs and with small
second-growth trees. At the side of the doorway was the tree which they
had collided with, a twenty-foot white birch. The hut was even mo