ces where he had left them.

But one thing he saw that gave him a savage satisfaction, and this was
the fact that there were footprints around the last one, in which the
muddy water had not yet had time to become clear.

Darry believed from this that those who had rifled his belongings could
not have left the scene more than a few minutes.

Perhaps if he were smart he could overtake them and demand restitution.

It stood to reason that the rascals could not have returned along the
same path, for he would have met them.

He bent down to examine the ground and could easily see where the marks
of several wet and heavy shoes continued along the trial that followed
the creek.

Darry immediately started off on a run.

Hardly five minutes later, as he turned a bend, he had a glimpse of a
figure just leaving the path and entering the woods bordering the swamp.

So far as he knew he had not been noticed; but to make sure he crept
along under the shelter of neighboring bushes until he reached the place
where the moving figure had caught his eye.

Voices now came to his ear, and it was easy enough to follow the three
slouching figures that kept pushing deeper into the swamp.

He even saw his precious traps on their backs, together with several
muskrats which Jim himself carried.

Perhaps their first idea was to throw the traps into the oozy water of
the swamp, so that they could never be found again; but then those steel
contraptions represented a cash value of a dollar or so, and money
appealed strongly to these fellows; so they hung on, with the idea of
placing them in a hollow tree, where, later, they could be found and
sold.

Darry knew that he was going to recover his own, and he now watched the
movements of the three with more or less curiosity.

All the while he kept drawing nearer, fearful lest they discover him
before he could get close enough to hold them up; for should they run in
different directions he could not expect to accomplish his end.

Then he saw what brought them to this place.

A rude shack made of stray boards, and branches from trees loomed up.

It was evidently a secret hide-out of the gang, where they came when
matters got too warm either at home or among the neighbors whose hen
roosts they had been pillaging.

When Darry saw Jim throw his bunch of game on the ground, he knew his
chase was at an end, and that presently, when he felt good and ready, he
could turn the tables on his enem