aster, with a
satisfied smile. "Two heads are better than one, any day, Lil Artha,
especially when they seem to work together as well as ours do."

"Then the man didn't think to skip out right away after he got back
here, did he?" asked Landy, "because a good many hours have elapsed
since Lil Artha woke us all up with that sudden shot."

"No, he must have slept for some time," answered Elmer, "knowing there
wasn't apt to be any sort of a pursuit in the night. Then again he
relied more or less on having blinded his trail, as a man who had spent
some time in the West among Indians and cowboys would have done. It
wasn't a great while before dawn when he must have aroused poor Hen and
told him they must get away."

"But when do you think our chum could have scribbled that message?"
asked Mark.

"Evidently, after he knew about our being within a mile of him,"
replied Elmer, with a promptness that told how he had figured it all
out. "I suppose the man told him about the khaki soldiers who were in
the swamp looking for them, thinking it would make Hen more frightened
than ever; but we know he guessed the truth about our being his
comrades of the Wolf Patrol."

"Then, believing he would be hurried off again, sooner or later," Mark
continued, "he took the first chance he had to write that message. He
must have fixed it in that split stick, and just as they were leaving
here stuck the wand in the ground, scout fashion."

"We seem to have it all sized up to a dot by now," remarked the leader,
preparing to move; "and as there isn't anything else for us to do here,
suppose we get busy on the trail again, Lil Artha?"

"I'm your chicken, and you can depend on me when it comes to scenting
out a trail, Elmer. Wonder if that man will be up to any more high
jinks in the way of walking along logs, climbing trees, and such
tricks? We'll keep a good lookout for such capers, believe me."

They were soon moving along, the two trackers in the van as before,
with others trailing after. Landy brought up the rear, though Mark
kept a careful eye on him most of the time, as though rather skeptical
about his ability to make progress without getting into some sort of
trouble.

It would be just like clumsy Landy to trip, and make a headlong plunge
into the brown tamarack water of the swamp just when he should have
been most careful. They had known him to do such things more than a
few times in the past; and on this account Mark alwa