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Pony Rider Boys in New England

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<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2> <h3>YOUNG WOODSMEN ON THE TRAIL</h3> It was a happy lot of boys that gathered in the camp of the Pony Rider Boys that night. They sat down to a full meal once more, and Stacy Brown's "weak heart" was forgotten in the general good cheer. After supper the question of their future movements came up for discussion. Cale decided that if the others were agreeable, the main party had better move on to the woods, leaving someone there to bring the money when the remittance should have arrived from home. Professor Zepplin suggested that Charlie John might stay in town to wait for the money, but Cale did not like the idea. He asked Tad how he would like the job. "Fine," glowed the freckle-faced boy. "But how could he find us?" protested Professor Zepplin. "The same as any good woodsman would. Follow the trail." "I'll stay with him. If he can't find the trail, I can," spoke up Chunky. "I pity Tad if you remain with him," answered Rector. "I will blaze the trail so they can't miss it, Professor. We shall have three or four days for exploration before Butler and Brown get in, then we will move on. By the way, Master Tad, when you get your money you might drop into the bank and take up that note if you wish. If it is going to make you short, of course the note may stand until I get back." "Take it up, by all means," ordered the Professor. "The favor has been a big one to us. We shall never forget it." "Then you are going to take a new trail from here?" asked Tad. "Yes. We will follow the trail you took in coming in here for, say five miles, after which we shall branch off. You will find the turning-off place clearly marked." "Oh, I will see that he doesn't get lost," declared Chunky. "You leave it all to me." "Yes, if you are looking for trouble, leave it to Chunky," retorted Ned. The plans were laid in detail that night. At daybreak on the following morning Tad Butler and Stacy Brown saw their companions riding away. The two boys watched them until the party had disappeared, all waving their hats at the lads who had been left behind. "Now, Chunky, you are in my charge. If you don't behave yourself, I shall be under the painful necessity of giving you a thrashing." "You bet it will be painful for you if you try it," retorted the fat boy. "I certainly shall try it if you give me cause. See if you can't act like other folks." "I don't want to be like other folks. I'm satisfied to be Stacy Brown." "I reckon you will be that as long as you live. And there's only one Stacy," answered Tad laughingly. "But remember, you are not in favor with Squire Halliday," warned the boy. It was four days after the departure of their companions when the remittance came, Banker Perkins having wired to a bank in Bangor to hasten funds to the boys at Matungamook, thus saving at least two days for them. Tad cashed the draft at the bank and took up Cale Vaughn's note as arranged, after which the boys packed their kits and set out for the trail into the wilderness. Neither boy was at all apprehensive about his ability to find the way. Tad knew that he should find the trail plainly marked, and he did. Along about noon they found the point where the two trails diverged and halted there for a bit to eat, and to give their ponies a rest. The journey to the place where the others were to camp was fully thirty miles farther in. It was a long jaunt for two boys, but Vaughn had perfect confidence in Tad's ability to follow the trail. After resting for an hour the boys continued until night. They made camp before dark, building a fire and constructing a small lean-to, not having their tents with them. They were as handy at taking care of themselves as if they had been in the woods all of their lives. Stacy Brown appeared to have turned over a new leaf. He worked like a good fellow. There was now no toil about the camp too hard for the fat boy. They lay down to sleep early in the evening after piling plenty of wood on the fire, and slept soundly until daybreak. A quick breakfast and they were off. "There is the trail," said Stacy, pointing a blaze on a big spruce. Tad glanced about him inquiringly before starting. He saw that the blazed trail took a bend at that point, branching off to the right a little. This did not arouse any suspicion in his mind, for he did not know the route taken by Cale Vaughn, depending wholly on the blazes and other trail marks. All that day they continued on their journey. Tad decided that they should reach the camp early on the following forenoon. Instead of reaching the camp in the morning, the following night found them still following the trail. Tad was somewhat troubled when they made camp that night. Still, the camp might be much farther from town than Cale had thought. The boys consulted and decided to go on. That night they found a campfire, or rather the remains of one. The fire was two or three days old and the small greens were trampled down about the place as if quite a party had camped there. This encouraged the boys, and next morning they went on with renewed courage. They kept on going until the morning of the fourth day when the trail brought up abruptly at the side of a small lake. There it ended. "Well, we seem to be in something of a quandary, Chunky," said Tad. "It looks that way. What are you going to do?" "Follow the shore of the lake around until I find the trail again," answered Butler confidently. "They must have landed somewhere. It looks to me as if they had swum their horses over, though I don't see any hoof-marks on the shore. That is what puzzles me." "Giddap," said Stacy in answer. The boys started to encircle the lake. In order to do so, they were obliged to work back into the forest some distance at one point, traveling more than a mile in what they supposed was a direction parallel to the lake. At last they came out on the shore again, and Tad gazed in amazement. "Stacy," he said, "do you see anything peculiar about this body of water?" "Well," answered the fat boy wisely, "it appears to have shrunk some since we saw it last." "That is what I think. There is something peculiar about it. It doesn't look to me like the same body of water." "Oh, yes it is. It's the same old pond." "Then we will complete our circuit of it if we can. Wouldn't it be funny if we got lost?" "Not to me, it wouldn't. I can get along without that." The boys had got around to the opposite side of the lake when Tad cried out joyously. "There's a blaze," pointing to a tree from which the bark had been cut. "I see it," answered Stacy. "They think they are playing a mighty smart trick on us, don't they?" "It looks that way." <center><ANTIMG src="images/were_lost.jpg" alt="We're Lost!"> "We're Lost!" </center> With light hearts the boys started on the new trail. It proved an easy one to follow, though they had begun to wonder if they ever were going to reach their destination. By the sun Butler kept the general direction in which they were traveling pretty well in mind. He did not think for a moment that he was on the wrong trail. As a matter of fact another party had, in the meantime, followed the trail from the village, taking Cale's blazes to the point where they eventually turned off. It was this branch made by the strange party that Tad and Stacy had followed to the first lake. They were many, many miles from the camp of their fellows. What was still worse, they were now on yet another trail, a trail all of a year old. After a time that trail, too, ended abruptly. In trying to pick it up, or its continuation, the boys lost it altogether, nor did they find it again. Tad called a halt and getting from his pony sat down on a log. "Are we lost?" asked Chunky solemnly. "We are," answered Tad with equal solemnity. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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