t chanct tuh run
across our skiffs up tuh last night. Then agin mebbe he was askeered
tuh snatch one, fur fear we'd hunt arter it, an' bother him in the
swamp."

"All right, Johnny, I believe you're barking up the proper tree," said
Elmer; "but it looks as if the man changed his mind last night, and
took a boat."

"Yep, an' by gosh! the newest one o' the lot, too!" groaned the bound
boy, as he led them closer to where the other skiffs floated, secured
to stakes.

"After all that row," suggested Lil Artha, "it might be they thought
we'd give a quick chase, and they couldn't afford to take any more
chances. So as a boat'd come in handy for them they gobbled it."

"Anybody'd pick the best in the bunch, come to that," added wise Toby.

"I don't know about that," Mark went on to say; "a really smart fellow
would be apt to reason that if he took only the old tub the owner
mightn't think it worth while to make much of a hunt for it, not caring
whether he got the same again or not."

"I consider that sound reasoning, Mark," observed the patrol leader,
who was never happier than when he found some of his followers
displaying good judgment in such matters. "But the boat's gone, and
our next duty is to take a look around the bank before we get to
trampling things up too much. We ought to make sure of things by
finding that marked track again."

"It can be done as easy as turning a handspring," vowed Toby Jones, as
all of them immediately spread out, fan-shape, like hounds that had
lost the scent temporarily, and were searching for it again.

Hardly half a minute had gone when there was an exultant cry raised.

"Didn't I say so?" demanded Toby, triumphantly; "but I never thought
Landy of all fellows'd be the one to find the trail."

"Oh! sometimes queer things do happen in this world," asserted the fat
scout, swelling with his triumph; "they say the race ain't always to
the swift. But take a look, everybody, and see if I'm right."

They looked and unanimously pronounced Landy's judgment correct. There
was the imprint of a shoe, a _left_ shoe in the bargain, beyond doubt,
and anyone who had eyes could detect that diagonal mark running across
the sole, which Landy had pointed out before as the line of the new
leather, placed there while he waited for Hen Condit in the Italian
cobbler's shop.

"As plain as the nose on your face, Landy!" admitted Lil Artha, with a
trifle of disappointment in his voice, for he had c