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ce away; and while the scouts could hardly expect to climb its rocky side that day, possibly camp might be made at the base. Even the cripples seemed to mend under the promise of reaching the foot of the mountain that afternoon. They walked briskly for half an hour at least, and then fell back into the same old limp, though proving game for the finish. "No signs of wheels around here, are there, Paul?" asked Jack, as he sought the side of his chum at the head of the straggling procession. "Now that's queer, but d'ye know I was just thinking about that same thing," the scout leader remarked. "To tell you the truth I was examining the ground as I went along. Perhaps you noticed me, and that's why you spoke?" "Yes, that gave me an idea," admitted Jack, readily enough. "I wondered whether those fellows could have gone past us last night while we were in camp, and are even now perched somewhere on the mountain, watching us crawl along down here." "Well, that's just what they've done. See here, you can notice the marks of the bicycle tires in the road. Little travel away up here, and along the side where it's smoothest they've gone single file, following the motorcycle of Ward, I guess." "Why didn't we see that before, then?" demanded Jack, frowning as he eyed the tell-tale marks. "I have looked a number of times," Paul went on; "but couldn't see anything. So you can understand it gave me something of a shock just now to discover the tracks." "Have you reasoned it out?" asked his chum; knowing full well that Paul would never allow such a problem to remain unsolved long. "There's only one explanation Jack, that I can see. Perhaps you remember noticing a little side road that joined with this one about a quarter of a mile back?" "Of course, I remember it. Then you think----" "They must have come out of that road ahead of us," Paul went on. "That's the way they got in their licks. Somebody knew about how it turned around, and joined on to the main stem again. What do you say, Jack?" "Why, of course. And now I remember hearing Scissors boast that he had the only map ever made of the Rattlesnake Mountain country--a logger charted it one winter, hoping to get his governor interested in some timber cutting scheme he had in mind, which fell through though." "That settles it. They're on the ground first; but what do we care about that, if they only leave us alone?" Paul remarked, seriously. "There's a
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