alculated on
discovering the tracks himself, and for one who was next door to a
greenhorn to do it humiliated the tall scout.

"No personal remarks, please, Lil Artha," said Landy; "I know my nose
isn't as prominent as yours, and some others in the crowd, but it
answers my purpose all right, and I'm not ashamed of it."

"Well, now we know where we're at," remarked Ted, with a satisfied air,
as though it might be a maxim with him to always start right.

"And it's up to us to divide our forces, choose our boats, and make a
start," Mark Cummings was saying.

"Ginger! don't I on'y wish I cud be goin' along!" said Johnny Spreen
with an expression on his face that could only be described as compound
disappointment.

"All of us would be glad if you were, Johnny," Elmer told him, feeling
for the boy, whose company would certainly be of considerable help to
the expedition, for Johnny knew the watery paths and the tangles of
Sassafras Swamp as, perhaps, no other fellow possibly could, since he
had long haunted its recesses, laying traps, and looking for new haunts
of the wily muskrats.

"As there are seven of us, all told," remarked Lil Artha, "that means
three in one boat, and four in the other. Elmer, you divide up. This
newer skiff looks to me just a weenty bit the bigger."

"It is by a foot, and wider, too," asserted Johnny, quickly.

"Then it ought to carry four, of course; but how's this, Johnny, where
are the oars for both craft; I don't see any!"

"Shucks! we don't use oars in the ole swamp," declared the other. "A
push pole's the best way tuh git along. Yuh see it's soft mud
everywhar, and so we cuts poles with a crotch at the end. That keeps
'em frum sinking deep in the mud, so yuh kin git a chanct tuh shove."

"And a mighty good idea, too," avowed Toby; "I've had a little
experience with just plain everyday push poles, and even got hung up
when one stuck in the mud, so the boat left me. But Elmer, how'll we
divide?"

The patrol leader glanced over his force. It was only fair that he
arrange it so the weight would be as nearly equal as possible.

"Lil Artha, take Mark and Landy in the smaller skiff; the rest will go
with me," he announced immediately.

Mark was the nearest chum of the patrol leader, but Elmer disliked
favoritism, and hence he thus tacitly placed Lil Artha in command of
the second boat. But then there was also another good reason for doing
this, since the tall scout had always sho