to see
what my teaching has done for you."

Pete led me through the underbrush to a point among the rocks.

"Tha'. A trail begins right under yore nose; let's see what you make of
it," he said crisply.

Down on all fours I crept over the ground and, to my surprise and joy, I
found that I could here and there detect a turned leaf the twist of
which indicated the direction taken by the party who made the trail. I
noticed that the bits of wood, pine cones and sticks scattered around
were darker on the parts next to the ground, and it only required simple
reasoning for me to conclude that when the dark side was uppermost the
object had been recently disturbed and rolled over.

It was a day of great discoveries. I found that what is true of the
sticks is equally true of the pebbles and a displaced fragment of stone
immediately caught my eyes. With the tenacity of a bloodhound I stuck to
my task until I suddenly found myself at the base of the park wall, at
the foot of the diagonal fracture in the face of the cliff where I had
climbed when I discovered the golden trout. As I have said, the
fracture led diagonally up the towering face of the beetling precipice.

For fear that I might have made some mistake I carefully retraced my
steps backward toward the bullberry bushes near the camp. On the back
trail I came upon some distinct and obvious footprints in a dusty place,
but so deeply interested was I in hidden signs, the slight but tell-tale
disturbances of leaf and soil, that I once passed these plainly marked
tracks with only a glance and would have done so the second time had not
their marked peculiarities accidentally caught my attention.

When examining the trail of this mysterious camp visitor I suddenly
realized that in place of moccasin footprints I was following bear
tracks, my heart ceased to beat for a moment or two before I could pull
myself together and smother the prehensile footed superstitious old
savage in me with the practical philosophy of the up-to-date man of
today.

Taking a short cut I ran back to the foot of the pass and there, on
hands and knees, ascended for a hundred feet or more--the bear steps led
up the pass, and yet at the beginning of the trail the feet wore
moccasins. This I knew because at one place the foot-mark showed plainly
in the gray alkali dust which had accumulated upon a projecting stone a
few feet below the ledge. Obviously whoever the visitor was, he had
entered and left by