"That's old Tyrant," Tom said. "See?"

Hervey would never have recognized the mountain. The side of it which
they saw was not at all like the familiar side which faced Temple Camp.
That frowning, jungle-covered ascent seemed less forbidding from the
river, but how Tom could identify it was beyond Hervey's comprehension.

It was apparent that by following a road which began at Catskill they
would skirt the mountain along its less precipitous ascent, and Tom
assumed that the trail, so doubtfully and elusively marked upon the
height, would be easily discoverable where it left the road, as
undoubtedly it did.

Deduction and calculation were not at all in Hervey's line; he would
have been quite satisfied to plunge into the interminable thicket on the
side near camp and get lost there.

"You see there is more than one way to kill a cat," Tom observed. "I was
thinking of the kidnappers while you were thinking about the mountain.
As long as they went up I thought I might as well let them show us the
easy way."

"You're a wonder, Slady!"

"There are two sides to every mountain," Tom said.

"Like every story, hey?"

"You're a good scout only you don't use your brain enough. You use your
hands and feet and your heart, I can't deny that."

"The pleasure is mine," said Hervey. "We're going to sneak up the back
way, hey?"

"No, we're going up the front way," Tom smiled. "Llewellyn came down the
back way."

"He's a peach of a scout, hey?"

"The best ever."

Hervey had soon a pretty good demonstration of the advantage of using
the brain first and the hands and feet afterwards. And he had a pretty
good demonstration of the particular kind of scout that Tom Slade was--a
scout that thinks.

They hit into the road about fifty yards from the boat landing and
followed it through a valley to where it ran along the foot of the
mountain.

"Are you sure this is the right mountain?" Hervey asked. "They all look
alike when you get close to them."

"Yop," said Tom; "what do you think of it?"

"Oh, I'm not particular about mountains," Hervey said. "They all look
alike to me."

Following the road, they watched the bordering woods on the mountainside
carefully for any sign of a trail. Several times they clambered up into
the thicket supposing some tiny clearing or sparse area to be the
beginning of the winding way they sought.

Hervey was thoroughly aroused now and serious. Once they picked their
way up into the woods for