hestnut trees. Yes, there could be no mistake: some person
had passed not long since; and though the tracks led away considerably
from the south-easterly direction he had hitherto kept, he turned,
without hesitation to follow them, and proceeded as rapidly as possible,
in hope of overtaking the solitary pedestrian, whoever he might be. He
shouted aloud, he sang some staves of various familiar old songs; but no
response from other human voice came, anxiously as he listened for such
echo. But the footmarks were before his eyes as tangible evidence; he
had got very sharp by this time at detecting the pressure of a heel on
the dead leaves, or the displacement of a plant by quick steps. The
tracks must lead to something. Certainly; they led to a creek.

Impossible! It cannot be that he has followed his own footprints of
yesterday! Planting his boot firmly on the bank beside the other mark,
he compared the twain. A glance was enough; the impressions were
identical.

The bewildered feeling of one in a labyrinth recurred. He saw nothing
better for it than to return to the point whence he had diverged to
follow the tracks. He now remembered having made this detour the
previous day to avoid cutting his way through a dense underwood on the
bank of the stream.

Nigh an hour had been lost by this delusive retracing of footmarks. He
thought that if he climbed the highest tree he could find, he would be
able to get a bird's-eye view of the country round. Oh that he might
behold some islet of clearing amid the ocean of woods!

To reach the branches of any of the largest trees was the difficulty;
for the smooth shaft of a massive marble pillar would be as easily
climbed as the trunk of some arboreal giants here, rising fifty feet
clear of boughs. However, by swinging from the smaller trees he
accomplished his object, and saw beneath him on all sides the vast
continuity of forest.

Desert could not be lonelier nor more monotonous. No glimmer even of
distant lake on the horizon; no brown spots of clearing; no variety,
save the autumn coat of many colours, contrasted with sombre patches of
pine. Stay--was not that a faint haze of smoke yonder? a light bluish
mist floating over a particular spot, hardly moving in the still air.
Arthur carefully noted the direction, and came down from his observatory
on the run. He was confident there must be a trapper's fire, or a camp,
or some other traces of humanity where that thin haze hung. He cou