Burgoyne.

"It's just this way," continued the other, briskly, as though only too
willing to show his hand, "you see Johnny has followed the same passage
in here so often now he's actually gone and left a trail behind him."

"Say, what are you giving us, Lil Artha?" demanded Toby; "on shore a
trail is all very well, but the water leaves none. Once it settles
down after a boat's passed, I defy anybody to tell a thing about the
same."

Lil Artha grinned as though he really pitied the dense ignorance of
some people.

"You've got another think coming, Toby," he said, drily. "I suppose if
you sat down and racked your poor brain a whole week you'd be no nearer
knowing what I mean, so I'll have to explain."

"Guess you will, that," muttered Toby; "if you know yourself what
you're getting at, which I doubt."

"Looky there," said the skipper of the second skiff, "do you notice
that where we make this turn to the left the bushes along the point are
kind of frayed, like something had rubbed against 'em a heap of times?"

"Why, yes, it does seem so," admitted Toby, reluctantly.

"All right then," continued Lil Artha; "if you'd kept your eyes about
you all the while you'd seen that same thing at near every turn.
Trying to cut short when he poled along, Johnny has left a track of his
passage at every bend. I always look sharp, and I can tell as easy as
falling off a log whether he went on, or cut into another passage. And
Elmer will bear me out on that explanation, too!"

CHAPTER VIII

PICKING UP CLUES

The leader of the Wolf Patrol laughed when he heard Lil Artha make this
remark.

"Every word that you are saying, Lil Artha, is the truth," he
announced. "I've been watching those ragged edges of bushes myself.
You see, the time might come after a while when I'd get mixed on the
directions given by Johnny Spreen. Then I'd want to have some other
scheme so as to find my way."

"But after a bit, Elmer, we'll get to a spot where Johnny changed his
course from one day to another, as he went to different traps; how're
we meaning to regulate our hunt then?" asked Toby.

"We've got to search the best way we can for the missing skiff," Elmer
explained. "If only we can find it hauled up somewhere on the bank
we'll know they went ashore at that point, don't you see?"

"Why, how eathy!" declared Ted, evidently lost in admiration for the
simplicity of the scheme, that could never have occurred to him before.

"Oh