The scant meal at an end, they resumed their journey, the doctor’s son taking the lead.  They moved in a semicircle around the base of one small mountain and then reached a rather broad mountain torrent.

“Hello, here’s a surprise!” cried Snap.  “I had no idea such a big brook flowed through these parts.”

“Nor I,” added Shep.  “Looks as if there might be good fishing here.”

The boys noted the location of the brook, so that they might visit it another day, and then pushed on as before.  They reached a slight rise and all concluded that their camp was directly to the west.

“In that case all we’ll have to do is to follow the sun,” declared Whopper.

“Right you are,” responded the doctor’s son.

“How far do you calculate it is?”

“Not more than two miles.”

“It may be a little more,” said Snap.  “But not much.”

They plunged into the woods once more, and had hardly proceeded a hundred yards when they heard some partridges drumming.  It was a chance for another shot, and they hurried forward with guns ready for use.

“I see them!” cried Snap, and blazed away, and the others followed suit.  They were unusually lucky, for five of the birds fell, either dead or fatally wounded.  Soon they had the game in their bags.

“There! that is something like!” cried Snap.  “They’ll make fine eating.”  And he smacked his lips.  He loved partridge meat very much.

They seemed to be getting deeper and deeper into the woods.  The trees around them were so dense that it was almost impossible to see the direction of the sun.  Several times they came to a halt to look around.

“What do you make of it?” asked Snap.

“I don’t like it,” answered the doctor’s son emphatically.  “First thing we know we’ll be lost.”

“Just what I was thinking.”

“We were to follow the sun,” came from Whopper.

“Can you see it?”

“Once in a while, and not very clearly at that.”

“Tell you what we might do,” suggested Shep.  “Climb a big tree and take a look around.”

This was considered a wise suggestion, and they started to carry it out.  A tree was selected, and the others gave Snap a boost to the lower branches.  Then up went the youth to the top, slowly but surely.

“Well, what do you see?” demanded the doctor’s son, after having given his chum a chance to look around.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” echoed Whopper blankly.

“Nothing but woods and mountains, and a brook or two.  I don’t see a thing that looks like a camp anywhere.”

“Oh, it must be ahead of us,” insisted the doctor’s son.

“All right—–­you come up and locate it,” grumbled Snap.

Shep came up and so did Whopper, and all three of the lads gazed longingly, first in one direction and then in another.  Nothing but what Snap had mentioned greeted their eyes.