The Corner House Girls Snowbound

  CHAPTER XX

  FOLLOWING ANOTHER TRAIL

  After all the activities of the forenoon both by the older boys andgirls of the vacation party at Red Deer Lodge, and by the children aswell, the soft snow was considerably marked up by footprints aroundthe premises.

  Ike M'Graw and Neale O'Neil, searching for prints of the feet of thosewho they thought had left the vicinity of the house early thatmorning, struck directly off for the edge of the clearing.

  "The best we can do," M'Graw declared, "is to follow the line of thewoods clean around the clearing. Somewhere, whoever 'tis got that foxand lifted the canned goods, must have struck into the woods. Theyain't hidin' in the barns or anywhere here. I've been searchin' them.That's certain."

  Neale had very bright eyes, and not much could escape them; but thesnow was coming down fast now and even he could not distinguish marksmany yards ahead.

  Here and there they beheld footprints; but always examination provedthem to be of somebody who belonged at the Lodge. The prints in thesnow Luke and his sister and Ruth had made soon after breakfast fooledNeale for a moment, but not for long.

  They saw the woodsman's big prints, too, where he had been looking forthe marks of the fox hunter. There were the marks Neale himself andAgnes had made when they had followed the "deer."

  All these various marks bothered the searchers; and all the time, too,the snow was falling and making the identification of the variousprints of feet the more difficult.

  "This here's worse than nailing the animals that they say went intothe ark that time Noah set sail for Ararat," declared Ike, chuckling."Whoever followed them critters up to the gangplank must have beensome mixed up--

  "Hello! What's this?"

  They had come around behind the sheds. Here was the entrance to theroad on which Neale and Luke with the three older girls had coastedthat forenoon. The woodsman was pointing to marks in the snow, nowbeing rapidly filled in. Neale said:

  "Oh, we were sliding on this hill, you know."

  "Uh-huh? Who was?"

  "Five of us. With a big bobsled."

  "Now, you don't tell me that bobsled made them marks," interposed theold man. "I know that bobsled."

  "Why--I--"

  "Them runner marks was made by little Ralph Birdsall's scootin' sled.I know that, too. Who's gone up to slide this afternoon?"

  "That must be the kids!" exclaimed Neale. "I wonder if Ruth knows theyare out here playing! I remember now I didn't see them at the front ofthe house."

  "You don't suppose they've gone far?"

  "Oh, I guess they will come to no harm around here. Ruth would not letthem go away from the Lodge to play."

  "Humph!" muttered the old man.

  But he went on. There was really no reason for Neale to be worriedabout the children. They were almost always well behaved. At least,they seldom disobeyed.

  Besides, it was only a few minutes later when Mr. Howbridge, wellmuffled against the storm, appeared with Tom Jonah on a leash. The oldwoodsman had just got down on his knees in the snow to examine twolines of faint impressions that left the path John's footprints hadmade to the farther shed.

  "Now, what's this? A deer jumped out here--or what?"

  Neale waited and Mr. Howbridge held the dog back. Ike got up andfollowed the half-filled impressions a little farther. They headeddirectly for the thicker woods to the north of the Lodge premises.

  "Might have been feet--small feet. And two sets of 'em," said Ike."Hi, Mister! did you find anything up in that closet belongin' to thetwins?"

  "Here is a pair of bed slippers. Knitted ones. They are much too smallfor a grown person," the lawyer declared.

  M'Graw took the articles thoughtfully into his big hands. "Humph! Looklike little Missie's slippers. Certainly do. Roweny, you know. Wonderif this old dog knows anything."

  He offered the slippers to Tom Jonah to sniff. The dog had been usedto following a scent in times past; often they would send him afterDot or Tess or Sammy. He snuffed eagerly at the knitted shoes.

  "Don't know how strong the scent is on 'em. It's been some time,p'r'aps, since little Roweny wore 'em. But--"

  Tom Jonah whined, sniffed again, and then lifted up his muzzle andbarked, straining at the leash.

  "Looks like he understands," said the old man, reaching for the leashand taking the bight of it from Mr. Howbridge's hand. "Good dog! Now,go to it. These here footprints--if that's what they are--are fillin'in fast."

  Tom Jonah put his nose to the marks in the snow. He sniffed, threwsome of the light snow about with his nose, and started off. Hefollowed the faint trail into the woods. But Neale doubted if the dogfollowed by scent.

  Once, in the thicket the marks were only visible here and there. Thefresh snow was sifting down faster and faster. The dog leaped from onespot to another, whining, and eagerly seeking to pick up the scent.

  "It's awful unlucky this here snow commenced as it has. Hi! I don'tsee what we can do," sighed Ike.

  "Do you really believe those marks were the twins' footsteps?"

  "I do. I believe they was in the house when your folks came, Mr.Howbridge," M'Graw said. "But now--"

  Tom Jonah halted, threw up his shaggy head, and howled mournfully.

  "Oh, don't, Tom Jonah!" cried Neale O'Neil. "It sounds like--likesomebody was dead!"

  "Or lost, eh?" suggested Ike. "Ain't no use. He--nor a betterdog--couldn't follow a scent through such snow. We're too late. ButI'd like to know where them children went, if these is them!"

  They turned back toward the Lodge, rather disheartened. If the twoBirdsall children, who had been left to the care of Mr. Howbridge,were really up here alone in the wilderness--and perhaps shelterlessat this time--what might not happen to them? What would be the end ofthis strange and menacing situation?

  Nobody spoke after M'Graw expressed himself until they came to thepath on which they had previously seen the marks of the small sled andthe footprints of Sammy and the two youngest Corner House girls. Thesetraces were now entirely obliterated. It was snowing heavily and thewind was rising.

  "Hi gorry!" ejaculated the old woodsman, "how about those otherchildren? Are they at home where they ought to be?"

  "Whom do you mean?" asked the lawyer, rather startled.

  But Neale understood. He looked sharply about. Not an impression inthe snow but that of their own feet was visible.

  "I'll go and see if the sled is returned to the place they got itfrom," he said, and dashed away to the shed.

  Before Mr. Howbridge and M'Graw had reached the Lodge Neale O'Neilcame tearing after them.

  "Oh, wait! Wait!" he shouted. "They haven't come back with the sled.What do you suppose can have happened to Sammy and Tess and Dot?"