This was answered by a shot
apparently from the direction of the team, and the boys turned about and
hurriedly made their way back.

It happened that the boys had actually lost their way, and in the
excitement all sense of direction. The Professor had made a complete
circle and the boys in their wanderings had executed a complete loop
within that circle, and were actually going back to the river instead of
to the team.

"I can't understand this business," said George, in a despairing tone.
"We have traveled far enough to get back to the team twice over. Let's
try another shot." It was answered by a shout from the Professor, close
by, to their left, and when they appeared in sight he was seated on the
log leisurely driving the yaks, laughing in a quiet way, and apparently
not noticing the discomfiture of the boys.

"We thought you were lost," said George; "didn't you hear us firing?"

"How does it happen you are going in this direction?" was the
Professor's quizzical remark, which he uttered with a faint suspicion of
a smile. As the boys did not reply, he continued: "Did you expect to
find the team at the river?"

[Illustration: _Fig. 35. CHART SHOWING HOW THE BOYS WERE LOST_]

Of course, they all had a good laugh at this, because the direction they
were taking, and the position in which the Professor found them, were
sufficient to indicate that they were really lost, and that he knew it.

"I felt satisfied," was his final remark, "that you had not a
well-defined idea of your direction when you fired the last time, but
you will learn in time how to keep your direction, and what is more, you
will never again permit an excited condition of the mind to make you
take a crooked path."

The boys looked wonderingly at the Professor.

"How," asked Harry, "does an excited mind make anyone take a crooked
path?"

"When the mind is excited, it is, for the time, deranged, like soldiers,
frequently on the field of battle, who are wounded, without having the
least knowledge of it. The sense of direction is a well-developed trait
in some people; in others, it does not exist at all. But in the case of
either, the moment the mind is excited, it becomes abnormal; some lose
the ability to judge distances, some are unable to talk, and others
can't do anything but talk. All judgment for the time disappears. Now,
take that person in a forest, and highly excite him, and he has
absolutely no judgment of distance or direction, and is