The continuous design was so nearly perfect that it
seemed like the work of human beings, but Hervey knew that it could
hardly be this.
What, then, was it?
Where the lines emerged from between the rocks the marking was less
regular and less clear, but plain enough in the damp, crusted earth
which covered the mud in the old stream bed.
With heart bounding with joy and elation, Hervey followed the bed of the
stream. The tracks, or whatever they were, were so clear that he could
keep to the side of the muddy area and still see them.
It was characteristic of him that having made this great discovery, he
did not trouble himself about the direction he was taking. In point of
fact he was going in a southwesterly direction toward the camp.
For perhaps a quarter of a mile the strange markings were clearly
legible in the dusk, running as they did in the yielding caked surface
of the stream bed. They were as clear as tracks in caked snow. Then the
path of the dried up waterway petered out in an area of rocks and
pebbles and beyond that there was no clearly defined way; the brook had
evidently trickled down into the lower land taking the path of least
resistance among the rocks.
No doubt Tom Slade could have followed that water path to its end, but
Hervey was puzzled, baffled. Yet the enthusiasm which carried him, as
though on wings, to his triumphs was aroused now. He had the prophecy of
Tom Slade to strengthen his determination. He must make good for Tom's
sake now, as well as for the sake of his troop.
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