"People of this section?"
"Certainly not! They are to all appearances city people, at least in
dress."
"You couldn't hear what they were saying?" asked Ned.
"No, but I could get some idea of their thoughts from their gestures.
One was kicking about something, and the other was trying to pacify
him."
"Well, where did they go? Where did you see them last?" asked Ned.
"They went up the slope, and disappeared behind that chimney of rock.
I've got pictures of that rock!"
"This looks like a three-cornered game!" Ned mused.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Jack. "Where are the three
interests?"
"We'll probably have to come back here tonight," Ned went on, without
answering the question. "We can never get up that slope in daylight
without attracting their attention."
"We must be at least four up-hill miles from camp," Jack calculated.
"All of that," answered Ned. "It is a long walk there and back."
"Then why not remain here?" asked Jack. "I'm hungry, but I'm more in
need of rest than food just now. We can lie here in the thicket until
night, and then creep up the slope and see what's doing."
"I was about to suggest that," Ned observed, "but I thought you'd be
ravenous for the sight of a camp dinner!"
"I have a hunch," Jack declared, after a time, "that Jimmie is
somewhere in this section! I don't know why, but when I saw those
men, strangers, evidently, walking so stealthily over the country I
got the hunch! Then I followed them, because I thought I might get a
clue to the boy's whereabouts by so doing.
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