ne else ought to be too,
if I'm not mistaken," said Dave with emphasis. "You can't stay here, man!
And whoever you are, I'm not going to let you!"

CHAPTER IX

"THE LAKE! IT'S THE ONLY CHANCE OF ESCAPE!"

The sun went down and the coming darkness warned the three boys, vainly
searching for Dave MacLester, that they must hurry if they were to find
their way to camp. If no success had attended them by daylight, they
certainly could hope to do nothing after nightfall, and they turned back
toward the lake.

All afternoon Phil, Billy and Paul had tramped the woods. Except for the
three tracks in some soft earth, as earlier mentioned, not one certain
clue to the direction taken by Dave and his unknown companion had the
friends found.

Quite worn out in both body and mind, they took careful note of their
bearings, then headed by what they thought a bee-line for Opal Lake.
On and on they hurried. The twilight deepened and they kept to a direct
course with difficulty. And still they reached neither the lake nor any
familiar spot.

"Fine boat we're in if we've gone and got lost," gasped Paul, bringing
up the rear. The boys were pushing forward at a slow run, Phil Way in the
lead.

"We didn't pay close enough attention to the distance, when we were going
the other way; but we'll be out of this in a little while now," came Way's
hopeful answer.

"I smell smoke. It might be from our own camp. Chip would be firing up
like mad to make a bright blaze," came Billy's voice above the steady
patter of feet upon the needle-strewn ground.

"There's some breeze picking up, but not quite from that direction," said
Phil, though he paused not a moment.

Paul was first to discover that the course Way was taking could not be
right. "I can catch the smell of the swampy ground, at the west end of
the lake, in the wind," he said. "We've got to head right against this
breeze."

A brief pause, and the lads agreed that Paul was right. And soon the proof
was positive. Ten minutes of rapid walking brought the chums to the water,
but it was at the east end of the lake, not the north shore, at which
they found themselves. Another half mile or less would have taken them
entirely beyond the familiar sheet of water, and have led them, hopelessly
lost, undoubtedly into the woods to the south. Their course had been
steered too far easterly in the beginning.

Glad, indeed, to be so near their camp once more, despite the weight upon
their