I think."

"Just there, I think," said Rob, looking excitedly round and pointing to
a darker patch of the great forest where they were.

"Nay, it wasn't dark like that, my lad," replied Shaddy. "It was more
hereabouts."

"Are you sure, Shaddy?"

"Pretty tidy, sir. No, I'm not. Seems to me that you are right, and
yet it was this side of that great tree. I remember it now, the one
with the great branch hanging right to the ground."

"I don't remember it, Shaddy," said Rob. "But I do, sir. It had a
bunch of those greeny-white, sickly-looking plants growing underneath
it, and we shall know it by them."

"Then it isn't the right one, Shaddy; we must try again."

"But it is the right one, my lad. It's bad enough work to find a tree
in this great dark place. Don't say it isn't right when I've found it.
Come now, look. Ain't I right?"

"Yes, Shaddy, right," said Rob as he looked up and saw the faded orchids
hanging beneath the branch. "Then the place is close here somewhere."

"You're almost standing upon it, Mr Rob," said Shaddy. "You see, I
have hit the spot," he continued, with a look of triumph. "There, I
will not be proud of it, for it comes very easy to find your way like
this after a bit of practice. There you are, you see; so now where to
go next?"

"I don't know," cried Rob despondently. "Can't you see any fresh traces
for us to follow?"

Shaddy set off, with his face as near to the ground as he could manage,
and searched all round the spot where the stained leaf lay, but without
effect; and after a few moments' examination he started off again,
making a wider circle, but with no better result.

"Can't have been anything to do with a wild beast, my lad," he said in a
low, awe-stricken voice, "or some signs must have been left. It's a
puzzler. He was here--there's no doubt about that--and we've got to
find him. I'll make a bigger cast round, and see what that will do."

"Can you find your way back here?" asked Rob anxiously.

"I must," replied Shaddy, with quiet confidence in his tones. "It won't
do to lose you as well."

He started again, walking straight on for a couple of hundred yards
through the trees and then striking off to his left to form a fresh
circle right outside the first, and at the end of five minutes Rob, who
stood by the great tree listening for every sound and wondering whether
his companion would find his way back, and if he did not what he would
do, heard a cry.