sh had torn a little hole in it.

Early the next morning Ted slipped away from his place at the breakfast
table, and motioned to Jan to join him behind the sleeping tent. Ted
held his finger over his lips to show his sister that he wanted her to
keep very quiet.

"What's the matter?" she whispered, when they were safe by themselves.
"Did you see the tramp-man?"

"No, but I'm going to find him!"

"You are?" cried Janet, and her eyes opened wide with wonder and
surprise.

"Don't tell anybody," went on Ted. "We don't want Trouble to follow us.
Come on off this way," and he pointed to a path that led through the
bushes back of the tent.

Trouble was busy just then, playing in the sand on the shore of Clover
Lake, while Mrs. Martin and Nora were clearing away the breakfast
things. Grandpa Martin was raking up around the tents, so no one saw the
Curlytops slip away.

"Which way are you going?" asked Jan of her brother.

"Over to the spring."

"What for? To get more water? Where's your pail?"

"I don't have to get water yet," answered Ted. "I'm going to the spring
to look to see if I can tell which way that tramp went. Don't you know
how Indians do--look at the leaves and grass in the woods, and they can
tell by the marks which way anybody went? Mother read us a story once
like that."

"I don't like Indians," remarked Jan somewhat shortly, half turning
back.

"Oh, there's no Indians!" exclaimed Ted impatiently. "I was only sayin'
what they did. Come on!"

So Jan followed her brother, though she was a little bit afraid.
However, she saw nothing to frighten her, and it was nice in the woods.
The wind was blowing through the trees, the birds were singing and it
was cool and pleasant. The Curlytops soon came to the spring where
Trouble had fallen in.

"Now we must look all around," declared Teddy.

"What for?" his sister demanded again.

"To tell which way the tramp-man went. Then we can find his cave."

"Maybe he lives in a wagon or a tent."

"Then we'll find them. Come on, help look!"

"I don't know how," confessed Janet.

"Well, look for a place where the bushes are broken down and where you
see footprints in the dirt. That's the way Indians tell. Mother read it
out of a book to us."

So Jan and Ted looked all around the spring, and at last Ted found a
place where it seemed as if some one had run through in a hurry, for
twigs were broken off the bushes, and, by looking down at the ground, he
saw th