I reckon I might as well try the woods and what that imp calls the 'bresh;' I may strike a shanty or a native by the way." With this determination, Mr.Hamlin urged his horse along the faint trail by the brink of the watercourse which the boy had just indicated.
He had no definite end in view beyond the one that had brought him the day before to that locality--his quest of the unknown poetess.

His clue would have seemed to ordinary humanity the faintest.

He had merely noted the provincial name of a certain plant mentioned in the poem, and learned that its habitat was limited to the southern local range; while its peculiar nomenclature was clearly of French Creole or Gulf State origin.

This gave him a large though sparsely-populated area for locality, while it suggested a settlement of Louisianians or Mississippians near the Summit, of whom, through their native gambling proclivities, he was professionally cognizant.

But he mainly trusted Fortune.