attles show which way he was
traveling."

The captain brought his hand down on his knee with a hard slap. "I
reckon I can handle any ship that was ever built," he said, "but I'm a
lubber on land, boys. Charley's our pilot from now on, an' we must
mind him, lads, like a ship minds her helm."

"If I'm going to be pilot, I'll make you all captains on the spot,"
laughed Charley, as he spurred forward again into the lead.

"Do those wonderful eyes see anything more?" mocked Walter, as he once
more ranged alongside.

"Don't make fun of me, Walt," said his chum, seriously. "What I have
done is nothing. It's just noting little things and putting two and
two together. You can easily do the same if you will train yourself to
observe things closely."

"Do you really think I could?" asked Walter, eagerly.

"Certainly you can, and now for the first lesson. Look closely at all
the bushes as we pass them and see if you notice anything out of the
way."

They rode on in silence for a few minutes, Walter scanning the scrub in
passing with a puzzled expression growing upon his face.

"Well, what do you make of it?" Charley asked.

"I don't know what to make of it," Walter confessed. "Every few
hundred feet there are branches partly broken off and left hanging.
Queer, isn't it?"

"Look closer and see if you can notice anything peculiar about those
branches."

"They haven't been broken off very long, for they are not very much
withered. I should say it was done about ten days ago."

"Good," exclaimed Charley, approvingly, "notice anything else?"

"Yes," declared Walter, his wits sharpening by his success, "although
those boughs seem to be broken accidentally, yet all are caught in
amongst other twigs so that each one points in the same direction--the
way we are going. What does it mean, Charley, if it means anything?"

"My color is wrong to tell you all that those broken branches mean, but
I can tell you a little. About ten days ago a party of Indians passed
through this way bound in the same direction we are. They expected
another party of their people to follow later so they marked the way
for them as you have seen. If I were a Seminole, I could tell from
those broken twigs the number of the first party, whither they were
bound, what was the object of their journey, and a dozen other things
hidden from me on account of my ignorance of their sign language."

"Indians, Seminoles," said Walter, bewildered, "I h