ps, and the Riflemen were left with no dependence
except their wood-craft.

This, in the end, answered their purpose. Examining the woods with the
eye of a true hunter, O'Hara satisfied himself of the course his leader
would take, and this he pursued with the dogged persistency of the
Indian himself. He was confident that the trail which he and the girl
had made subsequent to the storm could be followed without difficulty,
if he could only strike it. But just here lay the trouble.

"It looks likely," said O'Hara, as he and Dick stood deliberating upon
the proper course to pursue, "that he would take the nearest cut to the
settlement, and then again it doesn't look so likely. Lew is such a
fool, there's no telling what he'd do."

"Why do you think he wouldn't take the shortest way home?"

"'Cause he wouldn't, that's why. You see, Dick," added Tom, in a more
pleasant voice, "Shawnees are in the woods, and it's no ways unpossible
that they haven't learned that them two fools are tramping through the
country. If they do it, why it looks nateral that they'd s'pose they'd
try to reach home just as soon as they could, and would try to head 'em
off. Now, if the red-skins know this, Lew knows also that they know it,
and I hope, for our own credit, he's got too much sense to walk into
any of their traps. That's the reason why I think he may have took a
longer way home."

"Just exactly what he has done," said Dick in a glow of admiration.

"How do you know it is, eh?"

"I mean I think so, of course."

"Well, say what you mean, next time. And that is what makes all the
difficulty. How are we to know where to look for his trail?"

"It's pretty certain we won't find it by standing here all day."

"You go west and I will follow the creek, and when you stumble on any
thing worth looking at, just give the whistle."

The two did as proposed. Dick ranged backward and forward until
nightfall, while O'Hara examined the banks of the creek, until the
gathering darkness made it a hopeless task. Upon coming together, they
had nothing favorable to report, and thus ended the first day's search.

"You know what I'm certain of?" asked O'Hara, as they were ready to
resume the hunt upon the next morning.

"No, of course not."

"I'm sure that that red-headed villain that we fired at on the stump is
mixed up in this affair."

Dick opened his eyes at this startling thought, and replied, in a few
moments:

"I shouldn't wonder at all i