It was all very simple. Miss Campbell was to take a nap while Ben looked after the "Comet's" needs and in the course of half an hour, or at their leisure, they were to take the road. In the meantime, the others, with good walking, would have ample time to make the two miles through the forest. They bade each other a casual farewell since they were to meet again so soon, and led by the doctor, plunged into the forest. The ground had been cleared of undergrowth, so that looking up the side of the mountain, at the foot of which gurgled a little river, one could see a vast multitude of tall straight pine trees and occasionally the flash of a silver birch. Rank on rank they stood in infinite perspective; and sometimes an aged beech tree generalled their march and sometimes a magnificent oak spread out his venerable arms with a gesture of command. But the rank and file were pines; gray grenadiers, still upright with the years; young stripling pines, eager to be on the march. And always they seemed to be going the same way over the mountains to the frontiers of the world, and always through their branches came the murmur of their martial song. Nowhere had Billie seen so impressive, so magnificent a forest. She thought of the cryptomerias in Japan, but they were more like the gigantic pillars of a cathedral, while these hurrying hordes of pines and birches were like human beings. They suggested romances: lovers in the forests; knights in armor; wicked enchantresses. Once Dr. Hume paused and pointed to a cleared space beyond. There, standing under a great pine tree looking at them with startled eyes were a doe and her young. In another instant they were gone, leaving the campers holding their breath. In a little more than an hour they reached the end of the trail, where a foot bridge made of two logs took them over the turbulent little river. But no "Comet" stood waiting for them at the rendezvous with Ben at the wheel and Miss Campbell on the back seat. To be sure the road was twice as long, as the trail had wound around the side of the mountain for some five miles, but that was nothing to a motor car. "Might as well sit down and wait," suggested the doctor. They seated themselves in a row on a log expecting every minute to see the familiar blue car loom into sight. But the lagging moments dragged themselves into half an hour and still the "Comet" lingered. "I think we'd better walk back," said Billie, beginning to feel just a tinge of uneasiness. "Perhaps it would be as well," echoed the doctor. "They have had a breakdown, no doubt." The band of wayfarers feeling very weary after the rough walk along the river trail began their march back toward the lake. CHAPTER XI. A COMEDY OF ERRORS.