Il8 A DISCOVERY. 



failure to do so to the tracks made by themselves in tramping back and forth, while 

 the wet ground, for some feet from the shore, so quickly filled all indentations that 

 it was impossible to tell whether they were caused by the feet of men or animals. 



" Nothing is to be feared from an open attack," remarked Mr. Godkin, after con- 

 siderable discussion, "but it is these sneaking scamps that will crawl just nigh 

 enough to launch one of those pestilent arrows, and then scoot off before the shaft 

 comes down on your head." 



" We have been exposed to that risk before entering Bechuana Land, and even 

 while we were in the Transvaal," said Dick Brownell. 



"That may be," replied his cousin, "but I suppose Mr. Godkin means to say 

 that the danger he speaks of is one of those we can never become used to what's 

 the matter with Jack ? " 



The Texan had walked apart from his friends, and was prosecuting an investi- 

 gation independent of them. 



The fact was, the cowboy was utilizing his experience on the plains of the South- 

 west when campaigning against Geronimo and his miscreants. The occasion was 

 one which called for that sort of knowledge, and the sagacious Texan was turning 

 it to good account. 



First, he went some distance up stream; then, turning to one side, so as to pass 

 clear of the party near the water, he returned to the bank at a point below. Thus, 

 it will be seen, he followed a line which, at sdme point, must have been crossed by 

 the wild men, after disembarking from the raft. 



While thus engaged, he scrutinized the damp ground with the penetrating eye 

 of a Kit Carson. He detected no trail beside that of his friends, whose footprints 

 he was able to identify, because of the peculiar footgear they wore. 



Returning to Mr. Godkin and the others, he observed the absence of poles front 

 the raft, besides which, it lay so lightly against the bank that a slight push would 

 have set it free. 



It was enough : Jack Harvey had formed his conclusion. 



" That raft has drifted down stream ; there wasn't a rascal on it ; the current 

 carried it against the bank, where it caught fast" 



