"Now, join me, Darry, while I count off the hundred steps up the slope." This done, the chums started backward, keeping a course as nearly parallel with the shore as was possible.
"Now, try to be keener than ever," Dick urged, as Dave paced off another twenty steps higher up.

"We're in a growth of deeper forest, with a bigger tangle of underbrush and it will be easy enough to overlook something." The two boys trudged on.

They were five minutes on their way back, perhaps, when Dick heard a sudden scrambling in the underbrush not far away.

Then Prescott caught sight of a human figure, yet so fleetingly that he could have given no description of it.
"Is that you, Darry ?" he called sharply.
But it wasn't, for no answer came back, save for the slight sound of someone going through the brush farther on.
"Dave! Darry!" shouted Prescott.

"Here! Quickly!" Then Dick dashed on in pursuit, calling again and again until Dave came in sight and joined in the chase.
"What was it ?" panted Dave, as he came within hailing distance.
"Someone running away from me," Dick explained.
"What did he look like ?" "I didn't have a chance to see.