Part 8 (1/2)
”But what do you do when that is gone?” asked Pepper
”Oh, that's a different story,” laughed the colonel ”We'll coan the colonel, when they had finished theirit the best dinner they had ever eaten, ”I know you all have been wondering how I happened to be here when you ca about you just before we caels, 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 coet 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 ca 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 ”Hoould you like to take a look at it?”
”'Twould bethen I see the eneone part of the way
”Hoas that?” asked Rand
”Monkey Rae,” replied the colonel ”There were a number of them”
”Of Monkey Raes?” cried Rand ”Gee! I hope not”
”I hed the colonel, ”there were more with him”
”Yes,” said Rand, ”he and Saether”
”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 alked 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 ca 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 theht 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”