o more than foot-paths and we can make no time, so
let's go," she urged.

It was an hour later when the party mounted and started away,
Washington bringing up the rear on a pack mule, industriously playing
his new harmonica. The going was slow and tedious and the Overlanders
were tired when they halted for a rest and luncheon shortly before noon.
A half hour's nap followed the luncheon, the party being "lulled" to
sleep by Washington's harmonica.

It was a discordant, insistent screeching of the harmonica that finally
awakened them.

"Stop that noise!" roared Hippy. "I'll--"

"What is it?" cried Grace, springing up, shaking her head to more
thoroughly awaken herself.

"Ah seen er man, Ah did," answered Washington. His eyes wore a
frightened expression and he was shifting and shuffling uneasily. "Ah
seen his face. He war a peekin' through the bushes right thar where yuh
be sleepin'," he informed them, nodding to Lieutenant Wingate.

"You were dreaming," scoffed Hippy.

"Ah wuz wide awake, Cap'n. Er fly er a bug bit me on de nose an' waked
me up. Ah seed de man den, an' when he seen I sawed him he run away."

"I hope you gave him an anesthetic before you 'sawed' him, Wash," said
Emma Dean, who had been listening eagerly to the conversation.

"Yes'm."

Hippy started towards the spot indicated by Wash.

"Wait! Don't trample down the bushes until I have had a look," begged
Grace, stepping forward. "We will look first."

Parting the bushes she peered in and pointed. Hippy saw a well-marked
trail where the bushes had been brushed aside, and here and there a
tender leaf-stem broken off.

Stooping over, the Overland girl scrutinized the ground, and, with a
finger, beckoned Hippy to kneel down.

"See that?" she demanded.

"What is it?" questioned the other girls in chorus. They had followed
Grace and Hippy and were eagerly peering over the heads of the two
kneeling Overlanders.

"Footprints of a pair of heavy boots," announced Hippy. "The impression
they have left in the moss is unmistakable. This looks as if he had
rested his gun-butt here," he added, laying a finger on another
depression in the moss.

"I do not think so," said Grace, after examining it critically. "I
should say that the man made that second impression with the toe of his
left boot. By looking at the impression of the right boot you will
observe that it sunk in deeper, meaning, probably, that he threw his
weight on the right foot and took