ON THE TRAIL. 



26; 



" In the first place," said the Texan, as they rode at their rapid pace, so close 

 together that conversation was easy, " that 'ere young scamp has gone so fur that 

 he passed over that hill right ahead of us." 



" What of that ? The distance isn't great." 



"I'll show you in a minute," replied Jack, who, when they reached the bottom 

 of the slope, on the other side, asked his companions to turn their heads and look 

 at their own camp. 



Making the attempt, they found it was not in sight ; the hill shut it from view. 

 It followed, therefore, that if they were riding in the footsteps of Dick Brownell, he 

 had reached a point, not far from his friends, where the light of his own camp-fire 

 could serve him no longer as a guide. 



A STARTLING DISCOVERY. 



" But, if he looked toward them trees right ahead," added Jack, " he would have 

 catched sight of the fire burning there." 



" But that was in a course opposite to his own camp," said Bob. 



" You know how easy it is for any one to get completely turned 'round, so that 

 he can't get things straight for the life of him." 



While this is a truth beyond question, the difficulty lay in the improbability that 

 Dick Brownell, in the first place, would have gone far enough in the darkness to 

 take him to the other side of the hill, and that, having gone that far, with the 

 knowledge that his friends were behind him, he should have formed the belief, 

 almost on the instant, as he must have done, that a camp-fire in tho other direction 

 was his real destination. 



