lown away, or else the ground had opened up and
swallowed them; for a fellow who could put the least shred of faith in
the reincarnation of Captain Kidd, dead for several centuries, would
believe anything, Teddy privately told himself.

"Did they turn aside and enter the woods, Francois?" questioned Ned, at
the same time holding up a warning finger toward Jimmy, by this means
seeking to remind him they were in no position to enter into any
discussion.

"Zat iss what zey haf do," replied the French Canadian voyageur,
promptly.

"You don't think they're lying low to wait for us--that it is a trap?"
continued the patrol leader.

"Zere iss no reason to zink so," answered Francois. "I do not belief zey
haf see us; and if not, zen why lay trap? But it iss always better to be
sure zat ze road it be clear; so let ze chief heem go on and find
trail."

It was a good suggestion. None could do that duty quite so well as the
red brother, even though those boys had learned many bright things in
connection with woodcraft, since joining the ranks of the scouts. They
hardly felt like being able to enter into competition with a son of the
forest, who from infancy had been taught in the wide fields of actual
experience what they had of late been learning, partly from crude
theory.

"Go on ahead, Tamasjo, and find the trail," said Ned to the waiting
Cree.

"Find same, give blue-jay cry," Tamasjo told them; and it was so rarely
he ever spoke at all, that the other scouts had to smile and nod to each
other; for Jimmy had on one occasion even gone so far as to declare his
belief that the Indian must be a genuine "dummy" and unable to
articulate at all, which, of course, was not true.

They waited for him there, being in no particular hurry. If the trail of
the three men could be picked up that was all they wanted. They could
hardly have ventured to keep on the heels of those men through the
woods, where sounds might be carried to their ears that would put them
on the alert, and bring about a sudden climax, perhaps a battle royal.

The Cree vanished from their sight. So silently did he go that
afterwards the scouts exchanged views concerning the way in which he had
done it; nor could they fully understand how he could move deftly along,
without making the least sound.

But Tamasjo had been born and bred in the woods, and did not have to
overcome the barriers that civilization hampers its votaries with. He
had learned all he knew