hat there must have
been a large number in the party.

Here was an occasion where one great quality of many savage tribes
stands out so prominently, and that is in determining the number of
their enemies by the foot prints. Hundreds of imprints on the soil,
crossing and recrossing each other, will to the untrained seem a
hopeless riddle.

On one occasion on Wonder Island, John stated that one of a party they
were trailing, was wounded in one of his legs. The explanation was
simple: The pressure of the foot in the soil was less on the lame than
on the sound leg, and the stride was uneven.

But the scouts had to decipher the peculiar imprint of each foot, and
then compare it with all the others, in turn.

"I could tell the difference in the shape of a shoe from another," said
Harry, "but I do not see how it is possible to tell one foot print from
another."

"How do you distinguish people?" asked John.

"Well, usually, by their faces."

"Quite true. Now feet are just as different as faces are. But there are
other ways by which we recognize people."

"Yes," was the response. "I can tell who many people are at distances so
great that I cannot see their faces."

"How do you do that?"

"By the way they walk, by their size, or by some action that seems to be
peculiar to them."

"The observations are correct," answered John. "At the same time, if all
the men you knew happened to be in a crowd, and moving around among each
other, you would be able to recognize and place each without any
difficulty; is not that true!"

"Yes; and I think I understand the trend of your remark now."

"And what is that?"

"You mean to say that if the scouts are able to read, or to become
acquainted with the foot prints, they can read them as readily as I
would read the faces of my friends."

"That is the exact inference I wish to draw."

"Well, I want to see that done," and Harry followed up Uraso, and
watched Muro, and the most intelligent of the scouts, while they
carefully stepped over the ground, each being careful while doing so to
step in the foot marks of the preceding scout.

"That is a curious thing to do," he remarked, as he turned to John.

"What is that?" the latter asked.

"Stepping in the tracks made by the leader."

"That is for the purpose of keeping the surface of the ground absolutely
the same as the tribe left it."

"Well the boys seem to understand detective work pretty well."

All of them laughed at t