“She said nothing about any cottage, however,” put in Drina. “When Maud and I found her patching up the boy she was at her most energetic--apparently comforting him on account of his own fears of the wood, and assuring him that she was not a witch herself! He had been telling her his fears; that’s what Maud and I thought.” “But all the same,” Sybil spoke up, “I am going to make some extra practice time for all the junior Daisies. Betty says that she tried to follow ‘sign,’--evidently acting on Eve’s instructions--but that she could not find any! Well, they shall have a tracking practice next week.” “You mean to keep the Cup next year, then, Sybil!” “Let the best patrol win, of course; but I mean ours to be the best if dogged will do it,” said the head of the school. The junior Daisies, therefore, on the following Friday afternoon were thrilled and enthralled at the appearance of a special notice on the notice-board of their patrol. There would be, it appeared, an expedition on the following Saturday week, captained by the head. All Daisies were expected to attend, and--before the practice--they were requested to “make themselves as ready as possible” for the afternoon’s lesson, which would, it appeared, include exercise in spooring and tracking. “But what can _I_ do?” inquired Betty rather helplessly in the dormitory that night. For her recent efforts to extricate herself from the wood by means of applying the principles laid down by Eve had met with scant success. And she was terribly anxious not to disgrace the patrol to which she was attached. “Sybil won’t expect you to know _anything_. _We’re_ going to read up,” informed Mona and Rene. But to the Mascot the blue Guide book was as yet forbidden ground. Betty would in feverish eagerness, as Sybil probably guessed, have read and re-read the blue book through, and in trying to work out every principle at one and the same time have failed miserably. “Nothing was to be gained by snatching,” as Miss Carey had said on the first night. Betty’s knowledge must come by slow degrees. “I tell you what,” said Gerry, noticing her friend’s unhappy face, “we’ll both practise together. There’s a week before the expedition, and you’ll learn some things anyway by then. There’s a sandy place in the grounds here where we’ve worked at making footprints, and we’ll start on that. Different sized ones, and standing still and running ones, you know.” Gerry dimpled in a friendly way. This sounded delicious to the Mascot; in spite of the rather superior looks of Mona and Rene, Betty’s eyes danced at the thought. If she had known how very real and unexpectedly thrilling the tracking expedition at the end of the week would turn out to be, it is likely that she would not have longed for it quite as whole-heartedly and delightedly as she did. CHAPTER X LOST!--THE CUP! Betty was wrought up to a fever of energy.