Pathfinder | Page 2

be so green. "Matty, suppose you enlighten him a little, won't you--that is, if you've got through reading your letter?"
"Letter!" ejaculated both Landy and George--"that thing a letter?"
"A short and sweet one," remarked Matty. "You see, Elmer has signed it with what I make out to be the paw of a wolf. That's the totem of his patrol, while mine is a beaver tail, and the third one would be the claw of an eagle."
"Say, that sounds kind of interesting like," observed Landy. "I rather expect I'll cotton to this same Injun picture writing letter business, once I get at the secret key of it."
"That's where you're away off to start with, Landy," remarked Matty, laughing, "because you see there's nothing hidden about this business at all. In fact, the one particular idea with the one who writes a message in Indian picture writing is to make it so simple a child might understand."
"Well, I declare," cried the fat scout, who was not in khaki uniform like four of his companions, simply because he and George were waiting until the town tailor, father to Jasper Merriweather, one of the members of the troop, could complete their suits--"then, if a baby could understand what our pathfinder has left for us, perhaps now there might be some chance for me."
"Oh! it's as easy as falling off a log, once you get the hang of it," declared Larry Billings.
"Look here, and I'll show you, fellows," remarked Matty, holding the bark up so that everyone present could see the lead-pencil marks.
"Looks like several men, to start with," interposed George.
"Good enough, George," said the patrol leader, "and that's just what they are. Count them, will you?"
"One, two, three."
"That's right. So you see, to begin with, our pathfinder tells us the enemy ahead are three in number. Now, do you see anything close by those three figures of men?" and Matty held the bark directly in front of Landy and George.
"Sure," replied George. "Under one is a mark--say, it looks like the same down at the bottom of the letter, and you said that was the sign or totem of the Wolf Patrol."
"Just so; and this tells us the first fellow is a member of that patrol. Under the others you will see marks to indicate that they are members of the Beaver and the Eagle patrols."
"That's so, Matty; I can see 'em," declared Landy, who evidently did not wish his cousin to get all the credit for smartness.
"All right. Let's get on a little," said Matty. "First notice two have hats on, while the third wears none. Now, you may think that an accident in drawing, but it isn't at all. Elmer meant it for something."
"And I can guess what it is," declared Chatz Maxfield, the Southern boy.
"Then tell the rest of us," cried several.
"Why, it's dead easy," was his reply. "Stop and think; who's always losing his hat every chance he gets?"
"Nat Scott!" quickly exclaimed Landy.
"All right. And don't we happen to know that Nat was one of those who went ahead of Elmer and Lil Artha by an hour or so," laughed Red.
"Well, I declare!" cried Landy, "and do you mean to say Elmer has guessed that, or did he see the fellows before he wrote this letter?"
"Neither one nor the other. He just figured it out from something he found. Perhaps he knows what the print of Nat's shoe looks like, for we all make different tracks, you know."
"Yes," said Chatz, "that would be just like Elmer. He's the most observing, wide-awake fellow I ever knew since I came up from the South. I've seen him measuring some of our tracks, and making a copy in that wonderful little book of his."
"Now, let's get on a little further. Do you see that the second figure, no matter how often he appears, always has his left leg bent a little?" and Matty pointed in several places to confirm his statement.
Immediately Red laughed aloud, and then in one breath he and Larry exclaimed:
"That's Ty Collins, as sure as anything!"
"I guess you've hit the mark," said Matty, "and that was just what Elmer was trying to tell us. Ty's left leg has always been a little crooked since he fell out of that cherry tree three years ago. Now, the third fellow got me at first, but come to look at him he seems a little different from the others. See here, and here, and here."
"That's a fact," declared Landy, scratching his nose in a way he had when puzzled.
"He can't mean he's a dead one, and sprouting wings, can he?" asked George.
"Wings! I've got it, fellows!" shouted Red.
"Then pass it around to the rest, because I'm all up a stump," observed Larry.
"Shucks! don't you know there's only one fellow in the whole troop who's