“You will have to build another fire,” replied the colonel.  “Now, see how well you can do it.  Do it just as I did and light it from this fire.  We had only one match, you know.”

“But what do you do when that is gone?” asked Pepper.

“Oh, that’s a different story,” laughed the colonel.  “We’ll come to that later.”

“Now,” began the colonel, when they had finished their meal, unanimously voting it the best dinner they had ever eaten, “I know you all have been wondering how I happened to be here when you came along.”

“Yes, sir,” admitted Jack, “we were talking about you just before we came ashore.”

“Speaking of angels, I see,” said the colonel.  “The fact is, boys, I’ve got a little shack down here in the woods and whenever I get tired of town I come out here and get a breath of the woods, and I was out here to-day.”

“That was lucky for us,” interjected Donald.

“Is that your house above here?” asked Rand, “the one covered with bark.  We saw it as we came along.  Pepper was sure an outlaw lived there.”

“And you weren’t so far out of the way at that, were you, Pepper?” answered the colonel.  “How would you like to take a look at it?”

“’Twould be most interesting,” said Donald.

“Come along then.  I see the enemy were out in force,” he added when they had gone part of the way.

“How was that?” asked Rand.

“Monkey Rae,” replied the colonel.  “There were a number of them.”

“Of Monkey Raes?” cried Rand.  “Gee!  I hope not.”

“I mean,” laughed the colonel, “there were more with him.”

“Yes,” said Rand, “he and Sam Hopkins and Red Burns are always together.”

“Who was the man with them?” went on the colonel.

“Was there a man with them?” asked Jack.  “I wonder who he could have been?”

“A man who walked with a limp,” continued the colonel.

“Man with a limp,” mused Jack.  “What was he like, did you see him?”

“No,” replied the colonel.  “I only see his track.  They came along this way.”

“Where do you see that?” asked Rand.

“Here is the trail,” replied the colonel, pointing it out as he spoke.  “Here is the print of a foot on the dirt and here is another.  Here is a bigger and a heavier one; a man made those.  You can see one of them is deeper than the other, showing more weight on that side.”

“But, how can you see all that?” questioned Pepper.  “You have hardly looked at them, and I couldn’t see them at all until you pointed them out.”

“Practice and observation,” answered the colonel.  “That trail is as plain as day.  There wasn’t any attempt to hide it.  Why, out on the plains a scout would follow it at a gallop.  See how far you can track it.”

“’Twill no be far, in my opinion,” confessed Donald. “’Tis no over plain.”

But with much care and patience the boys were able to follow the track for a considerable distance, losing it every now and then and picking it up again, Rand being the quickest and Donald the most persistent; ail of them getting a little more expert as they went on.