round for a response in agreement with his comment, but
Kiddie was not there.

"Which way've you gone, Kiddie?" he called.

But there was no answer.

Rube stood listening, but heard no sound. He called louder; there was
still no answer.

Now, Rube knew Kiddie well enough to be assured that there was some
special meaning in this sudden disappearance. It was not a mere
playful fancy. Kiddie had gone away intentionally, making no sound,
leaving no sign. Clearly he wanted to test Rube's skill in tracking.

Rube remained standing where he was, but his eyes were alertly
searching around amongst the shrubs and trees and along the ground for
some mark or sign that might tell him in which direction Kiddie had
gone. He knew that success in following him depended entirely upon his
true start, and that a false beginning would only land him in
difficulties, if not in his being actually lost.

Rube knew also that Kiddie would not play him any childish pranks, but
would give him fair play all through, even helping him by leaving some
"scent" in his trail--not handfuls of torn-up paper, as in an English
schoolboys' game of fox and hounds, nor by so obvious a method as that
of blazing the trees. It would be a test in which every faculty of the
searcher's scoutcraft would be brought into active exercise.

Sniffing the warm air, listening keenly, looking with sharp scrutiny
over every foot of the ground from where Kiddie had stood behind him,
Rube at length fixed his gaze upon a tuft of grass where some of the
blades had been bent over as by the tread of a moccasined foot. He
went closer to it and saw that some of the frail blades were fractured.
Now he had his starting point. He did not rush forward, but carefully
estimated the probable direction, listening the while.

Presently there came to him the harsh cry of a jay, which told him of
Kiddie's whereabouts, or at least of the line of Kiddie's course
through the forest solitudes.

And now he went on in pursuit, picking up the faintly-indicated tracks
one by one; often going far astray on a false scent and needing to
return on his own back trail to the point where he had gone off the
line that had been so cunningly laid for his guidance or his confusion;
but always coming upon some new clue that lured him on and on.

Many times he stood still in serious perplexity. Everything around him
was wild and unfamiliar, with no slightest trace or sign, either new or
old, of