"Who?" demanded Frank.
"The mysterious man! Come--no time to lose!" and Bart rapidly told what he had seen.
"Wait until I get my gun, and I"ll be with you!" cried Fenn.
"Aren"t we going to have dinner first?" asked Ned.
"We"ll eat a light lunch, and take a snack with us," proposed Frank.
"We don"t want to waste too much time."
In a little while they were ready to start, each one with a few sandwiches, while Bart, in addition, carried a small coffee pot, and a supply of the ground material for making the beverage in the woods; water could be had by melting snow over a fire they would build.
Bart led the way toward the mud volcano, the location of which was now well fixed in the minds of the boys.
"Here"s where I first sighted the deer," Bart explained when he reached the place. "By Jinks! I wish I could have potted him, though! He was a beaut!"
"And where did you see our mysterious friend?" asked Frank.
"Not until I got to the spring. We"ll soon be up to it."
But when they reached the spot, which, because of the warmth of the water, contained no trace of snow, though elsewhere the ground was white, there was, of course, no evidences of the man, save for blurred footprints.
"That"s right where he stood," declared Bart, "and he went off in this direction."
"Then it"s up to us to follow," a.s.serted Ned. "We can see his tracks.
They"re pretty plain now, but they won"t be in a little while, for it"s going to snow more."
They hurried on, trailing the man like officers of the law after a criminal. The footprints were plainly visible in the snow, being blurred occasionally by little drifts that had blown over them. They showed that the man had run a good part of the way, for the marks were far apart and irregular.
They had gone on for perhaps a mile, seeing no sign of their quarry, but loath to give up, when there was a sudden darkening of the atmosphere, the wind increased in violence, and then the air was again filled with flying flakes, so thick that the lads could not see ten feet ahead.
"Might as well give up now," called Bart. "His tracks will be covered in five minutes."
"Let"s wait a bit, and see if it stops snowing," proposed Frank, and they did, standing in the shelter of some trees. But the white flakes showed no inclination to stop, and with something like despair in their hearts the four chums prepared to return to camp.
"And it"s about time, too," remarked Ned, looking at his watch. "It"s after five, and it will soon be dark. Let"s eat. I"m hungry."
"Oh, wait a while," advised Bart. "We"ll soon be back at camp. I think I know a short cut, and then we can have a hot supper."
"Well, go ahead," agreed Frank. "A short cut will be just the thing. I"m tired."
Bart started off with an air of confidence, hesitated a moment, and then plunged his hand in his pocket.
"Well, I"ll be hanged!" he burst out.
"What"s the matter?" inquired Fenn.
"My compa.s.s--I haven"t got it. Let me take one of you fellow"s."
"I haven"t any," said Fenn. "Left it in camp."
"So did I," added Frank and Ned.
"You did?" asked Bart, blankly.
There was a pause--the boys knew what it meant to be out in the woods in a snowstorm, without the little swinging needle to guide them.
"What did you do with the one you had, Bart?" asked Frank. "You had one, didn"t you, when you were out after the deer, and saw the man?"
"Sure I did, but I took it out of my pocket when I stuffed this lunch in, and must have forgotten to put it back. I remember now, I left it on the box in the tent. But I thought you fellows would sure have one."
"Well, we haven"t," said Frank, with an uneasy laugh. "What"s to be done?"
"Oh, I dare say we can get back--somehow," went on Bart. "Come on, fellows. I think I know the way."
They started off, with no light hearts, and tramped through the blinding snow, but it was with little confidence. Several times Bart stopped to get his bearings. Once he and Fenn disputed about a certain turn, and Bart so insisted that he was right, that the other two lads agreed with him. It grew darker, and they wandered into drifts, stumbled into unexpected hollows, and brought up against trees, sometimes falling over stumps. At last Bart said:
"Fellows, there"s no use going on this way any farther. I"m off the track. I shouldn"t have started out. The fact of the matter is that we"re lost in the woods, and we"ve got to make the best of it!"
CHAPTER XX
A NIGHT OF MISERY
Bart"s announcement brought looks of blank astonishment and dismay to the faces of his chums. They had so depended on him, that, to have him go back on them in this fashion, was a shock.
"Are you sure we"re lost?" asked Ned, slowly.
"No doubt of it, in my mind," answered Bart, and he laughed a little.
The strain of keeping up the pace on a route he was not at all sure of, was harder than admitting the fact of being lost in the wilderness.
"What are we going to do?" asked Fenn, rather helplessly.
"The first thing to do will be to gather wood for a fire before it"s too dark to see," announced Bart, with a.s.sumed if not real cheerfulness.
"Then we"ll make a blaze, and eat."
The mention of food was cheering in itself, to say nothing of the prospect of a fire, and then, too, the act of being busy took from the minds of the lads the thoughts that they were lost.
In a short time they had gathered quite a pile of wood. Some of it was dry, for it was under the low-lying branches of spruce and hemlock trees, and the snow had been kept from it. From the interior of hollow logs some "punk" was obtained, and this, together with some dead branches, that had lodged in a hollow under a big rock, made enough fuel to get a blaze started.
"But where are we going to stay to-night?" asked Frank, when the flickering flames had dispelled some of the darkness.
"Don"t worry about that," advised Bart. "Some of these fir trees are as good as a tent, and nearly as dry. We can stay under them until morning."
"Will we be any better off by morning?" asked Ned, dubiously.