CHAPTER EIGHT
JAKE'S INTERVIEW WITH A SKUNK
"Gilly, do you know of any vegetable dye we can find in the woods to dye some burlap for decorations?" asked Julie one day.
"Yes, you can take the berries and leaves of red or staghorn sumac and boil them together to make a black dye, or ink. If you need ink in a hurry, you can take the Genus Coprinus, commonly known as the ink mushroom, and pluck it at the end of its first day. The spores are black, and the gills turn into a black fluid at the last. This produces a splendid writing ink, or will dye grass, quills, and other wildwood stuffs."
"Speaking of quills, Gilly – why can't we have chickens as the Grey Fox boys have?" asked Joan.
"What would you do if they got the gapes, and no one would feed them chopped onions?" laughed Mr. Gilroy.
"I'm not looking for trouble, but for pets to have about camp," retorted Joan.
"I'd hardly call a chicken a pet!" laughed Julie.
"Even so, Julie, it would cluck and appear to be friendly, even it wasn't."
"What you scouts need is a good frisky dog for a pet. You can have chickens, if you like, but they are a nuisance. They stray away to lay their eggs, and if they were kept cooped you'd have to spend valuable time making a suitable inclosure. But a dog will go hiking with you, guard you at night from elephants and other prowling animals of the jungle, and be a fine old pal to boot," said Mr. Gilroy.
"Oh, why didn't we think to bring Jippy," exclaimed Amy. Jip was a little poodle of about fifteen years and had had the rickets for the past five years, so he had to be carried about.
The moment the scouts saw that Amy was in earnest they fairly roared, and Judith finally said: "Oh, Amy's catching the ingénue habit from Betty! What shall we do with two of them on hand?"
"Had we but known of this dire need of a dog, we would have brought Towser – had he lived. He was only twenty-two this March, and had full use of his bark even though he had no teeth or eyesight. But, alas! alas! Towser is no more!" sighed Julie, rolling her eyes.
As Towser had been one of the "old settlers" in Elmertown, he was known to every man, woman and child there. Many a time, because he was stone-deaf and had not heard the blast from the horn, some one would have to rush out to rescue him from a passing automobile. So Julie's lament caused a new burst of merriment.
"Stop all fooling now, scouts, and listen to me," said Mr. Gilroy. "I mean a regular dog – an Irish terrier, or a bulldog, to chum with and be of some good to you. How'd you like it?"
"There ain't no sech critter in camp," retorted Julie.
"But I know where to get one! His name is Jake, and he is very fond of the ladies, I'm told."
"His name sounds dreadfully rakish, Gilly," teased Joan.
"If Jacob is as faithful as his name would imply, we'd like to meet him," added Mrs. Vernon, smiling.
"You shall. He lives at the farm where my overseer is, and the next time Mr. Benson is due here, I'll see that Jake accompanies him. If both sides are mutually attracted, the dog shall stay to give you scouts something to do," declared Mr. Gilroy.
"What kind of a dog is he, Gilly?" asked Betty, eagerly.
"He is a prize Airedale. But he is so clever that he tries to run everything on the farm, consequently Mr. Benson always has to separate Jake from the other dogs in the neighborhood."
For the next two days the scouts were kept busy constructing a fine kennel for Jake to live in when he joined their camp. Everything imaginable was done to add to the comfort and luxury of this "dog's life"; and the third day they started for the bungalow to be introduced to Jake, who was expected to arrive that morning.
It was a warm, drowsy day, and the wildwood creatures seemed to be keeping quiet. Even the bees hummed less noisily over the flowers they were robbing of nectar. The girls strolled slowly along the pathway, stopping now and then to watch a bird or examine a flower. They were just passing the bend where the tumbling brook could be plainly seen from the trail when, suddenly, Julie held up a warning hand for quiet.
Every one stopped short and waited. She pointed silently across the bushes in the direction of a long fallen tree that lay on the bank of the stream. The scouts looked, but saw nothing to cause this interest. Then she whispered warily, "I saw a big creature creeping along that log!"
"Really!"
"What did it look like? Which way did it go?" were questions hoarsely whispered.
"It crawled on that log and suddenly disappeared. Maybe it jumped into the water when it saw us. I am thinking it was a beaver," returned Julie.
"Oh, how wonderful! If we could only see it at work," cried some of the scouts.
"How big was it, Julie?" now asked Mrs. Vernon.
"It went so fast that I couldn't see well, but I should say it was about as big as a very large cat, – maybe larger if we were closer," said Julie.
"Dear me, if we didn't have to go for Jake we might sit and wait for it to appear again. If it is a beaver, I'd love to watch it build a dam," sighed Ruth.
"I hope Jake won't want to chase it, on our way back," Betty worried, as the thought struck her.
"We'll hold Jake on a leash. And if he doesn't make a fuss we might creep over and watch for the animal's appearance again," added Julie.
"Then the sooner we go and get Jake, the sooner we'll be back here," was the sensible remark of Joan.
The scouts now hurried along the trail and soon reached the bungalow, where a splendid Airedale was sleeping in the sunshine. He was stretched out full length right in the way where one would have to pass to go up the steps to the verandah.
"Oh, are you Jake?" called Julie quickly, when she saw the dog.
"Isn't he a beaut?" cried Joan, admiring the shapely form as it jumped up to growl at the visitors.
"Why, Jake, don't begin our relations with a growl! Don't you know we have to keep the peace all summer?" laughed Julie, snapping her fingers to the dog.
Mr. Gilroy heard voices and came out on the verandah. The moment he greeted the scouts familiarly, Jake wagged his stump of a tail and ran up to show his friendship for his master's friends.
The girls fussed over the dog immediately, and Mr. Gilroy smiled. "Well, what do you think of him, scouts? Is he homely enough to win your pity? You know it is said, 'Pity is akin to love.'"
"He's a regular peach, Gilly!" exclaimed Joan.
"Just what we need at camp," added Judith.
And in the next ten minutes the dog had won high favor with his future companions. Then the scouts told about the animal they believed to be a beaver, so they wanted to hurry back and watch.
"But hold to the leash if you go near the log. Jake is a born hunter," advised Mr. Benson.
"Oh, he is very obedient if you speak sternly to him," added Mr. Gilroy. "If he tugs or wants to run, just command in severe tones, 'To heel, Jake,' and he will obey like a lamb."
Jake wagged his tail as he watched Mr. Gilroy, and when the order was given, 'To heel, Jake,' he crept behind his master.
"Oh, the darling! Doesn't he mind splendidly!" cried several of the scouts.
"I'll come along pretty soon. Wait for me near the log where you saw the beaver. I'll finish up with Benson and then join you there," said Mr. Gilroy, as the scouts started down the trail again, leading Jake by the leash.
Every one was delighted with the meek and obedient dog, and the fussing was accepted by him as his due, but he paid no attention to the numerous pats and endearing names given him as they walked along. Then they reached the open space where the log bounded the edge of the running water. It was about a hundred yards from the trail and distinctly visible because the brook was lower than the footpath where the scouts stood.
"There it is! I saw it!" exclaimed Joan, excitedly.
At the same moment Jake also saw something doubtful moving swiftly out of sight back of the log. The girls ran over to the bushes to see the better, and Julie's hold on the leash relaxed unconsciously. In that same second, Jake took mean advantage of her inattention to him and darted away.
"Oh, oh! Come back here, Jake!" yelled Julie instantly.
But the dog stood upon a rock, his ears erect, his nose sniffing as he pointed it in the direction of the log. His tail trembled spasmodically and the hair along his spine stood up stiffly.
"I say, to heel, Jake. Come back, to heel!" shouted every scout in the group. But Jake was deaf to their calls.
Then the Captain called to him, but he bounded from the rock and managed to force his way through the bushes, the leash catching here and there on stumps, on sharp rocks, or on bushes.
"What shall we do? Now he'll kill the little beaver!" wailed Betty, wringing her hands.
"Some one run back and get Gilly! He'll make him mind," ordered Julie.
"Who's Orderly for the Day? I want to wait and watch what he does," said Joan.
"Oh, pshaw! I'm Orderly, and I s'pose I've got to go," declared Judith, impatiently.
"I'll go for you, Judy, 'cause I can't bear to wait here and see Jake kill anything," said Betty, deeply distressed.
"All right, Judy, – let Betty go instead, if she likes," agreed the Corporal. So Betty ran swiftly away while the other scouts resumed their coaxings to draw Jake away from the log.
Julie now started to break away through the bush to get the dog, and several of the girls followed closely at her heels. When they reached the place where they had seen something move, they also saw tracks in the soft soil.
"It really is a wild animal," said Julie, excited at sight of the footprints.
"But what? Do you know?" asked Judith.
"No, but it must be a beaver – or a fox. I don't know which," confessed Julie.
But they couldn't get at Jake. He was racing excitedly up and down on the log, his nose close to the strangely odorous scent, and all the commands and persuasions from the scouts failed to make the least impression on him. His nervous short yelps showed how keen he was to have a face-to-face bout with the animal.
Julie tried to step on the leash, but he dragged her foot so that she suddenly sat down violently on the ground. Then he nosed under the grass that hung over the brook, and finally swam over to the other side. There he stood and watched nervously, but the girls could not get him back again.
"Talk about his minding! Why, he's the cussedest dog I ever saw!" complained Julie, as she got up and shook her clothes free of the briars.
"There's no use standing in this baking sun to look at Jake standing on the other bank!" exclaimed Joan, angrily eying the disobedient dog.
"We'll go back to the shady trail and watch for Gilly," said Julie, starting back to join the Captain. But they kept calling to Jake as they retraced their steps.
When they got back to the slight elevation where Mrs. Vernon and Amy had waited, anxiously watching results, they saw Jake make a leap and swim quickly back across the brook to the log.
"He must have seen or heard something that time," whispered Hester.
"Yes, 'cause he's stretched out on that log nervously wagging his tail with his eyes glued on something," admitted Amy.
Then they caught their breath. The scouts saw a movement in the green leaves at the end of the log and then – Jake was creeping stealthily across that log, as if he also saw what he wanted to pounce upon.
"Oh, oh! Jake's got it! He's jumped upon it!" screamed Julie, frantically.
"Why, it's a great big tomcat! They're fighting!" cried Hester, too excited to stand still, but jumping up and down.
"A cat! Gilly hasn't a cat that color!" declared Joan.
"Girls!" fairly hissed Julie. "I bet it's a wildcat – and it will kill Jake as sure as anything!"
"No, no! Oh, girls, I just saw it, too! It's a skunk! Run, run – for your lives!" cried Mrs. Vernon, turning to run up the trail towards the bungalow.
But several of the scouts would not desert the dog. He had carried the skunk off its feet with his unexpected leap upon it, and the two rolled and fought madly for supremacy. The leash, instead of tripping Jake, got tangled in the skunk's legs, and both animals rolled back and forth.
The enraged beast fired the deadly fluid to blind her antagonist, but it drenched the fallen tree only. Then Jake caught a grip on her throat and shook her head; still she was game and kept on struggling.
Again they rolled over together, the skunk trying to get to the brink of the water, where she would manage to roll them both in. But Jake understood that motive, too, and braced his feet against the stones in their way.
A second volley of the ill-smelling spray from the skunk struck at random, and then Jake gave her neck another sudden shake. This time it was effective, and the head suddenly hung limp. Jake had broken her neck, and was the victor!
He now took great pains to drag the trophy through the brush to present to his friends in the roadway. The leash caught several times and almost snapped his own neck, and the skunk was heavy, but he managed to drag it along.
When Julie saw his intent she screamed and warned the girls to flee! And in running up the trail they met Mr. Gilroy, who had been summoned by half-crazed Betty's crying, "Jake and the beaver are killing each other!"
Mr. Gilroy did not stop to hear what Julie tried to gasp, but he ran down and saw Jake bringing the skunk out into the pathway.
"To heel! to heel, Jake!" shouted Mr. Gilroy, holding his nose when the dog tried to jump upon him in the ecstasy of having achieved such a great deed.
"What shall we do with him? He can't sleep at Dandelion camp to-night," wailed the girls, as they, too, held their noses.
"I'll have to take him back to the barn and have Hiram turn the hose on him for twenty-four hours."
"Isn't there a reward for skunks in the country?" now asked the Captain.
"Not only a reward, but the pelts are valuable since they became so fashionable," remarked Mr. Gilroy, complacently.
"Well, Jake's earned his keep to-day, then," declared Judith.
"But it will cost more than the skunk brings to pay for the nine hundred and ninety-nine bottles of fleur-de-lis toilet water Gilly will have to use to change Jake's scent!" laughed Julie.
CHAPTER NINE
LESSONS IN TRACKING
"Well, scouts! That shows us how little we know about wild animal's tracks," remarked Mrs. Vernon, after Jake had been made to go back to the bungalow, and the Troop went on to camp.
"I could have sworn that skunk's footprints were a coon's or a fox's, – or something big!" exclaimed Julie, trying to justify her mistake.
"To me, the tracks in the soil looked like a lynx's, or something," added Joan, hoping to cover the ignominy of having unearthed a skunk without knowing the animal.
"Isn't there some sort of book that will teach us how to recognize tracks, girls?" asked Hester.
"Is there, Verny? Maybe we can get one at the bungalow," added Julie.
"I don't know of any at this moment, but Mr. Gilroy surely will know," replied the Captain.
So they all went to the bungalow the next morning to inquire after Jake's scent, and also to borrow any books on the subject they had discussed.
"Yes, I have several books, and let me tell you they are precious, too. There are but few on this subject, and the one I consider the best was compiled by Ernest Seton-Thompson under great difficulties. He had to gather all information from plaster casts made in the tracks themselves, or from sketches, or from camera pictures taken on the spot.
"As every different animal leaves a different track, there are many illustrations necessary in such a work, and that makes the book most desirable and also very expensive. But it is great fun to study the pictures and then try to recognize the tracks in the woods."
"We haven't found any about camp," said Judith, regretfully.
"There must be all sorts of tracks there, but you don't know how to find them. Now, if you want to study this book and then practice early some morning, I'll come down and help find the tracks," Mr. Gilroy said.
"Oh, great! Will you come to-morrow morning?" asked the girls.
"Hadn't we better study the book first, scouts, and let Gilly know when we are ready to go tracking?" suggested the Captain.
So for a time every one was busy reading the book and trying to discover a track in the woods near camp. But Julie laughed as she said, "It isn't likely that a wild animal will prowl close to our camp at night. We'll have to hunt one some distance away."
Mr. Gilroy overheard the remark as he came down the trail. "Sometimes the animals will come quite close to camp just to find out what it is that is intruding on their forest domain."
"Well, then, I wish they'd hurry and come here!" declared Judith.
"When you are ready to hunt tracks, I'll arrange some baits around your camp grounds; and the next morning I'll vow you'll see that you've had callers while you slept. So quiet are they that you won't hear them, either," said Mr. Gilroy.
"We are ready to hunt now, Gilly. We know everything in the book and are crazy to test it," said Joan, eagerly.
"Then I'll tell you what we might do. I was going over to Grey Fox Camp, but if you girls will deliver a message for me, I will go home and attend to the bait I spoke of. Hiram and I will do the rest."
"All right – what do you want us to say to the boys?" agreed the scouts.
"Now, listen! Tell them that I want them to start out at dawn in the morning and hunt up all the tracks they can trace about their camp. Then to-morrow afternoon they are to come over here with their reports and have a match with you girls. The side showing the best results and most interesting experience shall have a prize. How does it strike you?" Mr. Gilroy glanced at the pleased faces as he concluded.
"Fine! Do they know much about tracks?" returned Julie.
"Oh, yes, but then you must understand that they have been scouting for more than four years. Tell them that this is your first summer in a genuine forest camp, and they need not expect you to accomplish wonders. Then you girls must turn in and do your best!" laughed Mr. Gilroy.
The scouts were most enthusiastic, and gaily agreed to follow Mr. Gilroy's suggestions. When they were ready to hike over the crest, the Captain said, "We may as well invite the boys to supper to-morrow and make a party of it."
"That will be splendid. And I'll contribute my quota to the dinner instead of eating it at home," added Mr. Gilroy.
"We may have quail or partridge for dinner if we track the birds carefully," suggested Joan, giggling.
"Venison steaks are better," hinted Mrs. Vernon.
"What's the matter with bear steaks, while we're about it? They're said to be gamier in flavor," laughed Julie.
"We'll have all three, and serve a ten-course dinner to the boys," added Ruth.
With light banter the scouts left Mr. Gilroy where the trails diverged, – they to cross the crest and invite the boys over for supper the next day, and Mr. Gilroy to go home to find the "bait."
Dandelion Camp was abandoned for a long time that day, and it was too late in the afternoon when the scouts returned, to ask what had been done in the woods during their absence; but a great deal had taken place there, as Hiram and his master could have told had they been so inclined. Even Jake could have testified to mysterious actions, and many queer maneuvers of familiar animals from the barnyard, but the girls never asked him. Their faith in Mr. Gilroy was sublime!
While the Dandelioners sat eating their camp supper, they discussed the boys they had visited that day.
"I declare! I wonder if we ever will know as much about the woods as those Grey Fox boys do," sighed Hester, taking a bite of baked potato.
"Sure! We know almost as much as they do already," bragged Joan.
"They gave us a lovely luncheon – and all with nothing to do it with," added Judith.
"And it's up to us, girls, to give them a dinner that will make their eyes pop out to-morrow!" declared Ruth.
"Let's plan it now, and do as much towards it as possible, then we can give that much extra time to tracking," suggested Julie.
"And, scouts! I want you to display every bit of fine work you have done since we've been in camp, and all the work we did at camp last summer, as well, and brought with us this year," advised the Captain.
"Yes, we don't want those boys to think we don't know a thing! The stuff we've made is so different from what they have, too," admitted the leader.
So the evening was employed in arranging many exhibits to impress the visitors the following afternoon. Then the scouts rolled into bed.
"Verny, you'd better set the alarm clock for four in the morning," called Julie, the last thing.
"Yes, we want to be up and ready to start when Gilly comes for us," added Joan, the Corporal.
"All right. Go to sleep now, or you'll all over-sleep," laughed the Captain from her tent.
But there was no need of an alarm clock. The girls were up half an hour before it rang, and were impatiently waiting for the arrival of their instructor in tracking. Some of the scouts had gone into the bushes to begin a search, but had found nothing.
It took but a few moments after Mr. Gilroy arrived to outline his plans for the work and fun. "We will scatter in couples to hunt for any sort of track whatever. The first couple that discovers any genuine track must call out, then we all will run and study it for what it is, or where it leads to. Now, pair off, scouts, but the Captain and I will follow at a distance and hurry to the first pair who find a track."
"There are nine of us – how about the odd one?" asked Julie.
"Let the three youngest go together," returned the Captain. So Amy, Betty and Judith hunted in trio.
It was a "still hunt" for a time, since every one was too intent on finding a track to speak. Most of the scouts took to the dense bushes and woods, but the Leader sought in a clearing and was the first to summon the others.
"Oh, come, every one! We've found a great big track!" called Julie, as she and her companion knelt to inspect the prints.
Every one raced wildly to the clearing, and, sure enough, there were hoof prints distinctly marked in the soil. The trail led across the clearing into the dense forest.
"Aren't they big?" excitedly asked Joan.
"They're made by a deer!" said Julie, boastfully.
"Are they, Gilly?" asked the girls as the Judge came up.
He pretended to study them carefully, and then said: "I shall have to wait and compare them with those in the book."
"Maybe it is a reindeer?" suggested Betty, eagerly.
"Mercy no! We don't have reindeers south of the Pole!" declared her sister.
"Look here, girls! This creature only had two legs – it left only two hoofmarks, one for each side," cried Judith now.
"Then I know what it was! It was that familiar animal that carries a pitchfork, smells of sulphur and is known to have hoofs," retorted Julie, making them all laugh merrily.
"I'm sure I have no desire to trail him!" said the Captain, holding up both hands as if to ward off such a danger. "Let him go to his lair in peace!"
"All joking aside, girls, this is a queer track – only two feet instead of four. Let's follow and see where it goes," suggested Mr. Gilroy.
So they trailed the plainly visible tracks, and after a distance, Julie said: "Whatever it is, it couldn't have traveled so far as this if it was a cripple. It just couldn't walk on two hind legs all this way."
Mr. Gilroy had to laugh loudly at this, but he said, "No, but don't give up hope! You may stumble right over the prostrate buck."
But the trail now crossed itself several times, and the scouts wondered which way the two-legged creature finally went, for all tracks were obliterated after that criss-cross place in a tiny clearing.
The Corporal was determined to pick it up again somewhere, so she finally came out to the trail that ran from the camp to the bungalow. Here she wandered up and down for a short distance, and then spied the tracks again.
"Oh, I've got him again. He goes right up this trail," so she followed.
The others followed at a distance, and then she shouted, "He prowled around Gilly's house, too, last night, for I see the hoofmarks here."
Julie would have gone after the tracks to the right "lair," but Hiram came forward from the barnyard to meet her. He had heard her call to the others, and offered a solution to the problem.
"I seen them tracks this mornin', too, Miss Julie, and I'm sure that animal come to the barnyard las' night to feed offen the hay and corn he could find around there."
"Oh, really! Would one do that?" asked Julie, amazed.
"Sure he would, if he was a deer. An' them tracks ain't no grizzly, er fox, er other critter, you know."
"No; of course, it is a deer, as one can see by the tracks. But I'm sorry we have to end in such an ordinary place as the barnyard," sighed Julie.
"I see'd some queer tracks down by that log where Jake caught the skunk," now hinted Hiram.
That was enough! In another moment every scout was bounding down the trail in order to reach the spot first and win honor by knowing the track correctly.
Hester found these tracks first, and shouted to her friends, "This has small cloven feet, but there are only two legs, also! Now and then you can see where one track looks as if a hind foot had broken in on another one!"
"Oh, girls! That explains that other two-footed animal!" now exclaimed Julie, quickly.
"What, what?" demanded every one eagerly.
"Most likely the deer stepped daintily with its hind feet directly in the same track made by its forefeet. It said something about that in the book, you know."
"Do you think that is it, Gilly?" now asked several anxious voices.
"Exactly! I was hoping you'd find that out," agreed he.
"Well, does this creature show any unusual tendencies, girls, by which you can recognize it?" laughed Mrs. Vernon.
"Not a thing! It starts from the trail and goes right through the brush where we broke a way that day the skunk was killed, and it stopped to question nothing. It must have been in a hurry to get a drink," explained Joan.
The trail plainly led to the brook, and ended there. No sign of anything going back again could be found, although the girls looked carefully over the entire place. Then Julie thought she saw something in the soft soil upon the opposite bank. To make sure, she waded through the shallow but swiftly running water, and there, on the steep bank, she saw the tracks again.
"Ha! I found 'em! plain as day. Come and follow!" called she. And off she started.
Not more than a dozen yards along the top of the bank she found the tracks go down again; and through the brook she went, up the other side, and back to the brush-clearing on a new trail, following the cloven-footed tracks. Out on the hard trail they were lost.
"Now, that makes two I've trailed and lost. It's a shame!" cried Julie, stamping her foot.
"'Better to have trailed and lost than never to have found at all,'" misquoted Mrs. Vernon, laughingly.
"If the first one was a deer, this second one must have been a little fawn," said Judith.
"Is there any other animal that wears hoofs?" asked Ruth, of no one in particular.
Now, Mr. Gilroy must have dreaded the reply, for he quickly changed the subject. "How many of you brought the plaster and bottle of water?" Every one had.
"Well, why not make a little cast of both the tracks you do not recognize and then compare them with those in the book when we go back to camp?"
This sounded fine, so the scouts were soon busy making casts of the tracks. When hard, they were handed to the Captain and Mr. Gilroy to carry carefully until they all reached camp.
Quite near the camp ground Hester made a discovery. "Oh, come and see! Here is something with toes. As big as a wildcat, or maybe a little bear!"
Yes, there were toes in this animal's tracks – as plain as could be. So the scouts guessed every animal known, excepting the coyote and water-loving creatures. After many futile suggestions, they made a plaster cast of these tracks also.
"I'm going to carry this load back to camp, girls, and be ready for the next one you give me," announced Mr. Gilroy, starting to go down the trail.
The next two tracks, one that of a large-toed animal and the other of one whose tracks showed how the hair grew down low on the hind legs, – for the hair showed in several of the imprints made of plaster, – strangely ended near the bungalow, and on the other side of the hard trail again, they ran as far as the barnyard.
"I never saw the beat of it! Any one would think Gilly hung the bait on the barn door to entice the animals here," said Julie, who was angry at winding up at such a place three times running. Mr. Gilroy had to laugh in spite of himself.
"Say, where did you put that bait, anyway, Gilly?" demanded the scout leader, watching the man skeptically.
"Where we knew it would attract the best results."
"Gilly, I verily believe you are hoaxing us!" cried Julie. Mrs. Vernon smiled at her bright scout, but Mr. Gilroy shook his head protestingly.
"Why should I hoax any one? I was laughing at the way you brave scouts dodged when Joan said the animal they lost might be crouching on a bough of the trees."
"No, that wasn't what made you laugh." Then Julie went over and held a secret conference with her corporal and Ruth, and they, grinning, urged her to do as she suggested.
So Julie took a sample of the different casts made in the tracks, and left the others engaged in finding new and intricate tracks. Mr. Gilroy and the Captain were not taken into the three scouts' confidence, but they must have suspected where Julie proposed going, for soon after she had gone Mrs. Vernon said:
"Girls, if we expect to entertain the Grey Fox boys at dinner this afternoon, we'd better go back now and begin work."
"Without a clue to any wild animal we tracked?" sighed Judith.
"Oh, yes, Judy – we've got some fine clues, and by the time we're at camp and have our books out, Julie will be back with proofs! Come on," was Joan's assurance to the girls.
On the way, the scouts discussed the last track they had discovered. "I was sure it was a crow's," asserted Amy.
"No, it was more like a chicken-hawk's," Hester added.