l thunderstorm. And wait, let me put in Professor Darling's house,
too, and the ridge from which you can see Mrs. Clemmens' cottage. It
will help us to understand----"

"What?" cried Hickory, with quick suspiciousness, as the other paused.

But Byrd, impatiently shaking his head, answered:

"The whole situation, of course." Then, pointing hastily back to the
hut, exclaimed: "So you have entered the woods again at this place? Very
well; what then?"

"Well, then," resumed Hickory, "I make my way along the path I find
there--run it at right angles to the one leading up to the glade--till
I come to a stony ledge covered with blackberry bushes. (A very cleverly
drawn blackberry patch that, Byrd.) Here I fear I shall have to pause."

"Why?"

"Because, deuce take me if I can remember where the path runs after
that."

"But I can. A big hemlock-tree stands just at the point where the woods
open again. Make for that and you will be all right."

"Good enough; but it's mighty rough travelling over that ledge, and I
shall have to go at a foot's pace. The stones are slippery as glass, and
a fall would scarcely be conducive to the final success of my scheme."

"I will make the path serpentine."

"That will be highly expressive."

"And now, what next?"

"The Foresters' Road, Byrd, upon which I ought to come about this time.
Run it due east and west--not that I have surveyed the ground, but it
looks more natural so--and let the dotted line traverse it toward the
right, for that is the direction in which I shall go."

"It's done," said Byrd.

"Well, description fails me now. All I know is, I come out on a hillside
running straight down to the river-bank and that the highway is visible
beyond, leading directly to the station; but the way to get to it----"

"I will show you," interposed Byrd, mapping out the station and the
intervening river with a few quick strokes of his dexterous pencil. "You
see this point where you issue from the woods? Very good; it is, as you
say, on a hillside overlooking the river. Well, it seems unfortunate,
but there is no way of crossing that river at this point. The falls
above and below make it no place for boats, and you will have to go back
along its banks for some little distance before you come to a bridge.
But there is no use in hesitating or looking about for a shorter path.
The woods just here are encumbered with a mass of tangled undergrowth
which make them simply impassable except a