Jack, however, as we shall see, was mistaken.
The road above the crossing was much more travelled than below; and for a while the boys found it very difficult to make out Snowfoot"s tracks.
But soon again fortune favored them.
"Rain--it has been raining here!" said Jack, examining the road where it entered the skirts of the timber, "and raining hard! We must be nearing the path of the whirlwind again."
They pa.s.sed through a belt of woods, where the storm had evidently pa.s.sed but without doing much damage; for it was a peculiarity of that elephant of a cloud that it appeared to draw up its destroying trunk once or twice, and skip over a few miles in its course, only to swing it down again with greater fury.
The road was now drenched all the way, and the trail they followed was so distinct that the boys did not stop to make inquiries at the log-huts which began to appear before they were well through the woods.
They made comparatively rapid progress up the valley, until they came to a point where the river, in its winding course, was crossed by the road.
There, again, the tornado had done a brisk business; the bridge was destroyed, the side of the road gullied, and the river swollen.
Both boys alighted and examined the track.
"Here is where he stopped and hesitated, finding the bridge gone," said Jack. "And see! here are his own tracks, as if he had got out of the buggy and gone ahead to reconnoitre."
"As well he might," Rufe answered. "Look at these tree-tops, and the timbers of the bridge lodged in the middle of the river!"
"He seems to have got through, and I guess we can," said Jack. "I"ve forded this stream, below the bridge, before now, when I"ve wanted to water my horse; but it was free from all this sort of rubbish then.
There must have been a great fall of rain up here!"
CHAPTER x.x.xVII.
THE MYSTERY OF A PAIR OF BREECHES.
Jack went out with the lantern upon the ruined abutment of the bridge, and showed a s.p.a.ce beside the drift-wood, in the turbid and whirling current, where fording seemed practicable.
Then the boys got into the wagon again, and the mare was driven cautiously forward, by the glimmering light which the lantern shed faintly before and around them. Lion swam ahead, throwing up his muzzle and barking loud, like a faithful pilot showing the safest way. The wheels went in over the hubs; the water came into the bottom of the wagon-box; the flood boiled and plashed and gurgled, and swept away in black, whirling eddies; and Jack said, "This wouldn"t be a very nice place to break down, eh,--would it?"
But they got safely through; and on the farther bank they were pleased to find again the trail of the horse and buggy.
They were now in high spirits. The whirlwind having pa.s.sed up the river, the road lay aside from its direct path, but still within the area of rain.
"This is gay!" said Jack. "He thinks he has baffled us; and he will put up somewhere for the night; and we won"t! We shall circ.u.mvent Master Radcliff!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: FOLLOWING THE WAR TRAIL UNDER DIFFICULTIES.]
But soon the boys were again puzzled. Reaching another cross-road, and bringing the lantern to bear upon the trail, they found that, instead of continuing northward, toward Wisconsin, or turning to the right, in the direction of Chicago, it turned at a sharp angle to the left, in the direction of North Mills.
"This move is a perfect mystery to me!" Jack exclaimed. "It seems as if he had thought the thing all over, and finally chosen the very last place one would expect him to make for."
"Are you sure this road leads to North Mills?"
"Perfectly sure; I"ve been this way three or four times. But another road branches from it, and pa.s.ses a mile north of the Mills; he has probably taken that."
But no; after a good deal of trouble--the road appearing once more dry and much trodden--they discovered that the horse and buggy had not taken the branch, but kept the direct route to the Mills!
"It doesn"t seem possible! there must be some mistake here," said Jack.
And every rod of their progress seemed now to increase the boys" doubts.
The road, long before they reached the Mills, became a mere bed of brown dust, in which it required a pretty vivid imagination to distinguish one track from another. The boys" spirits sank accordingly. Lion still led them boldly on; but his guidance could no longer be trusted.
"He"s bound for home now," said Jack, "and he"ll go straight there."
"If Rad _did_ come this way," said Rufe, "he was shrewd, after all. He knew that by pa.s.sing through a busy place like the Mills, he would hide his tracks as he couldn"t in any other way."
"To find "em again," Jack replied, rather gloomily, "we shall have to examine every road going out of this place."
It must have been near midnight when they entered the village. The houses were all dark and still; not a ray at a window, not even the bark of a dog, gave sign of life as they pa.s.sed.
"This looks discouraging," said Jack.
"A needle in a haystack is no comparison," replied Rufe. "The lantern is almost out."
"I can get another at our house," said Jack. "We may as well follow the dog now. What did I tell you? He is going straight home!"
The dog trotted up to the gate before Mr. Lanman"s cottage, and the wagon turned up after him.
"What"s that ahead of us?" said Jack, as the mare came to a sudden stop.
"Seems to be a wagon standing," said Rufe, shading his eyes from the lantern and peering into the darkness.
Jack jumped out, ran forward, and gave a shout. The wagon was a buggy, and the horse was Snowfoot, standing before the gate, waiting patiently to be let in.
Quite wild with delight and astonishment, Jack took the lantern and examined horse and vehicle.
"Old Lion! you were right," he exclaimed. "The scamp must have let the horse go, and taken to his heels. And the horse made for home."
"The most he cared for was to get off with the money," said Rufe, not quite so abundantly pleased as his friend. "What"s this thing under the seat?"
"The compa.s.s!" said Jack, if possible, still more surprised and overjoyed, "which I accused Zeph of stealing!"
Rufe continued rummaging, and, holding the lantern with one hand, lifted up a limp garment with the other.
"What in thunder? A pair of breeches! Rad"s breeches! Where can the scamp have gone without his breeches? See what"s in the pocket there, Jack."
Jack thrust in his hand, and brought out some loose bank-notes. He thrust in his hand again, and brought out a pocket-book, containing more bank-notes. It was Mr. Betterson"s pocket-book, and the notes were the stolen money.
Jack was hastily turning them over--not counting them, he was too much amazed and excited to do that--when the candle in the lantern gave a final flicker and went out, leaving the boys and the mystery of the compa.s.s and the money and Rad"s pantaloons enveloped in sudden darkness.
CHAPTER x.x.xVIII.