"The direction of the footprints shows that Mr.Dodge and his companions didn't have any notion of boarding a train and getting out of this part of the world." Yet, though both of these young newspaper hounds were keen to follow the trail, they did not find it any easy matter.

Dick and Dave reached the edge of the woods.

Then, for a short time, they were obliged to explore carefully ere they came again upon one of the bootmarks of fastidious Banker Dodge.

It was a hundred feet further on, in a bit of soft mould, that the next bootprint was found.

Had these two High School boys been more expert trackers they would have found a fairly continuous trail, but their untrained eyes lacked the ability to see other signs that would have been evident to a plainsman.
So their progress was slow, indeed.