"Because I find a place where Zeke crossed over from one side of the way
to the other. He stepped in the footprint of the other man in one place.
Zeke's foot is bigger so I'm sure it was his print. He could not step on
the other's footprint unless he was behind him."
"But what makes you think that they both went before the man that Fred
saw?"
"Because that man did not have a pack. The pack is gone."
"But I don't see how that proves they went before. They may have left
after the other man."
The Navajo shook his head, however, and said, "They go first."
"What are we to do now?" demanded George as he joined his companions.
"The first thing we want is some breakfast and then we'll decide what next
to do," said Grant, who in spite of Fred's greater readiness to talk, now
naturally assumed the place of the leader of the three Go Ahead Boys.
At that moment, however, the Navajo again turned to the young campers and
said, "I'll go to find out where Zeke and the two men went. If I go you
three boys must stay here until I come back."
"But suppose you don't come back?" suggested Fred.
"I shall come," said the Navajo confidently.
"But suppose you don't?" said Fred again.
"If I do not come by to-morrow morning," explained Thomas Jefferson, "then
you will know that something has happened to me and you will go back if
you can find your way."
"Not much!" declared Fred. "If you don't come we shall try to find out
what has happened to you."
"No. No," said Thomas Jefferson abruptly. "But I shall come back."
"You're not going until after breakfast," suggested Grant quickly as the
Indian apparently was about to depart.
"I will get breakfast when I come back," said Thomas Jefferson
laconically.
Without any further conversation he at once departed, closely following
the footprints of the three whom he believed had gone before him.
"Well, what's to be done now?" inquired George after the three Go Ahead
Boys had remained silent while they watched the departing Navajo as long
as he remained within sight.
"We'll get breakfast," replied Grant.
For a time conversation ceased while the boys were busily engaged in the
preparation of their morning meal. In spite of the mystery surrounding
them and the anxiety that more or less every one felt, they were all
hungry. As a consequence the simple breakfast speedily was prepared and it
was not until it had been eaten that the boys once more turned to the
problem which now confronted them.
"I'm telling you," said Grant positively, "that Thomas Jefferson is all
right. The only thing for us to do is to stay right here where we are
until he comes back or John and Pete are brought here by Kitoni."
"I'm afraid something has happened to String," said Fred slowly.
"So you have said before," remarked Grant dryly. "Now the thing for you
and for us all to do is just to hang on to ourselves and wait. We mustn't
let this get on our nerves. If we do no one knows what we shall be up
against."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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