"Yes," Darrin agreed. "The direction of the footprints shows that Mr. Dodge and his companions didn't have any notion of boarding a train and getting out of this part of the world." Yet, though both of these young newspaper hounds were keen to follow the trail, they did not find it any easy matter. Dick and Dave reached the edge of the woods. Then, for a short time, they were obliged to explore carefully ere they came again upon one of the bootmarks of fastidious Banker Dodge. It was a hundred feet further on, in a bit of soft mould, that the next bootprint was found. Had these two High School boys been more expert trackers they would have found a fairly continuous trail, but their untrained eyes lacked the ability to see other signs that would have been evident to a plainsman. So their progress was slow, indeed. They could judge only by the direction in which each last footprint was pointed, and they had to remember that one wandering through the woods might travel over a course whose direction frequently changed. "Dave," whispered Prescott, "I think we had better separate a little. We might go along about a hundred feet apart. In that way there is more chance that we'll come sooner upon the next print." There were perhaps six hundred feet into the woods, by this time, and stood looking down at the fifth footmark they had found. "All right," nodded Darrin. "We're a pair of rank amateurs at this kind of work, anyway." "Amateurs or not," murmured Dick, with a smile? "we seem to be the only folks in Gridley who are on the right track in this mystery at present." "I'm full of misgivings, anyway," muttered Dave. "Why?" "I can't help feeling that we should have turned our news over to Chief Coy or Hemingway. "Again, why?" "Well, if we lose our man now, we'll soon feel that we ought to have turned the whole thing over to the police while the trail was fresh." "Dave, don't you know, well enough, that newspapers do more than the police, nowadays, in clearing up mysteries?" "This may be more than a mystery," hinted Dave. "Even if we get through to the end of this trail---or mystery we may find a crime at that end." "All the more need, then, for moving on fast. See here, Dave, I'll follow just the way this footprint points. You get out a hundred feet or so to the right. And we'll move as fast as we can, now." The wisdom of this plan was soon apparent, for it was Dave Darrin who discovered the next footprint. He summoned Dick Prescott with a sharp hiss. "Yes; all right," nodded Dick, joining his comrade and gazing down at one of the narrow bootmarks. "But don't send a long signal again, Dave. We might be close, and warn some one out of our way." "What shall we do, then?" "We'll look frequently at each other, and the fellow who discovers anything will make signs to the other."