t!"

"Do you mean to say that any man was going to take this beautiful timber
away from us on that kind of a technicality?"

"I believe that's just what he did."

Two days later Elliott straightened his back after a squint through the
compass sights to exclaim:

"I wish we had a dog!"

"Why?" laughed Bob. "Can't you eat your share?"

"I've a feeling that somebody's hanging around these woods; I've had it
ever since we got here. And just now while I was looking through the
sights I thought I saw something--you know how the sights will
concentrate your gaze."

"It's these big woods," said Bob; "I've had the same hunch before.
Besides, you can easily look for tracks along your line of sights."

They did so, but found nothing.

"But among these rocks a man needn't leave any tracks if he didn't want
to," Elliott pointed out.

"The bogy-man's after you," said Bob.

Elliott laughed. Nevertheless, as the work progressed, from time to time
he would freeze to an attitude of listening.

"It's like feeling that there's somebody else in a dark room with you,"
he told Bob.

"You'll end by giving me the willy-willies, too," complained Bob. "I'm
beginning to feel the same way. Quit it!"

By the end of the week it became necessary to go to town after more
supplies. Bob volunteered. He saddled his riding horse and the pack
animal, and set forth. Following California John's directions he traced
the length of the river through the basin to the bald rock where the old
trail was said to begin. Here he anticipated some difficulty in picking
up the trail, and more in following it. To his surprise he ran
immediately into a well-defined path.

"Why, this is as plain as a strip of carpet!" muttered

Bob to himself. "If this is his idea of a dim trail, I'd like to see a
good one!"

He had not ridden far, however, before, in crossing a tiny trickle of
water, he could not fail to notice a clear-cut, recent hoof print. The
mark was that of a barefoot horse. Bob stared at it.

"Now if I were real _good_," he reflected, "like old
what-you-may-call-him--the Arabian Sherlock Holmes--I'd be able to tell
whether this horse was loose and climbing for pasture, or carrying a
rider, and if so, whether the rider had ever had his teeth filled.
There's been a lot of travel on this trail, anyway. I wonder where it
all went to?" He paused irresolutely. "It isn't more than two jumps back
to the rock," he decided; "I'll just find out what dire