caught the birds, and be ready to
throw up the game then and there?" suggested Toby.

"Hardly that," advised Elmer; "Johnny ought to be able to tell them
different. He would soon learn after looking things over that all our
tracks were made _after_ those of the man, when we left the camp. You
see that must tell him we were pursuing the fellow. I put myself in
Johnny's place; and that's how I believe I'd figure it out."

"A good way to do, too, believe me," said Mark.

"Then in that case," Lil Artha continued, "they'll be coming along
after us before a great while. Whew! if this doesn't beat anything I
ever took part in. It's a continuous procession, boys, winding in and
out through the high lands of old Sassafras Swamp--first Hen and the
man who controls his actions; then seven bold scouts of the Wolf
Patrol; and finally our big puffball of a Chief and his valiant posse
bringing up the rear."

"But we don't want them to overtake us, do we?" asked Landy, actually
meaning to hint that they had better be moving on, which was a
remarkable thing to enter the head of the Smith boy, always the first
to desire a halt.

"We do not," Lil Artha informed him, plainly, "and to prevent such a
horrible catastrophe from happening we expect to be on the jump again
right away, doubling our pace it may be, Landy. The worst is yet to
come, remember."

"Huh! you can't scare me any, Lil Artha," the fat scout told his
tormentor; for he knew very well that with a trail to follow they could
hardly proceed any more rapidly than before.

Progress was immediately resumed. They went forward in about the same
manner as before, with Mark keeping Landy company at the tail-end of
the procession. The situation was now growing more and more serious,
and much depended on whether they could manage to overtake the
fugitives before night came on. A whole day's tramping through the
intricate recesses of the swamp, just as the dry land afforded footing,
was a monumental task that must try the nerve of the best of them; and
Landy, if not one or two others, would be apt to drop out of the ranks
long before sunset came.

Elmer, however, was hopeful that they must overtake those they chased
long before such utter weariness seized upon them. He knew that Hen
Condit himself, although no weakling, could not stand hours upon hours
of continual walking, especially when it consisted of such uncertain
footing as fell to their portion under those cond