on. I've lost them again--no! here
they are, but only Olaf's. He must have lifted the child again, no
doubt."

"Look here," cried Leif, who had again strayed a little from his friend.
"Are not these footsteps descending the ridge?"

Karlsefin hastily examined them.

"They are," he cried, "and then they go down towards the wood--ay,
_into_ it. Without doubt Olaf has broken his promise; but let us make
sure."

A careful investigation convinced both parents that the children had
entered that part of the forest, and that therefore all search in any
other direction was useless. Karlsefin immediately re-ascended the
ridge, and, putting both hands to his mouth, gave the peculiar halloo
which had been agreed upon as the signal that some of the searchers had
either found the children or fallen upon their tracks.

"You'll have to give them another shout," said Leif.

Karlsefin did so, and immediately after a faint and very distant halloo
came back in reply.

"That's Biarne," observed Karlsefin, as they stood listening intently.
"Hist! there is another."

A third and fourth halloo followed quickly, showing that the signal had
been heard by all; and in a very short time the searchers came hurrying
to the rendezvous, one after another.

"Have you found them?" was of course the first eager question of each,
followed by a falling of the countenance when the reply "No" was given.
But there was a rising of hope again when it was pointed out that they
must certainly be in some part of the tract of dense woodland just in
front of them. There were some there, however--and these were the most
experienced woodsmen--who shook their heads mentally when they gazed at
the vast wilderness, which, in the deepening gloom, looked intensely
black, and the depths of which they knew must be as dark as Erebus at
that hour. Still, no one expressed desponding feelings, but each spoke
cheerfully and agreed at once to the proposed arrangement of continuing
the search all night by torchlight.

When the plan of search had been arranged, and another rendezvous fixed,
the various parties went out and searched the live-long night in every
copse and dell, in every bush and brake, and on every ridge and knoll
that seemed the least likely to have been selected by the lost little
ones as a place of shelter. But the forest was wide. A party of ten
times their number would have found it absolutely impossible to avoid
passing many a dell and copse