They counted on his returning on the wheel and circling the east line before he came there.
A little below the west entrance to Freckles' room, Black Jack stepped into the swale, and binding a wire tightly around a scrub oak, carried it below the waving grasses, stretched it taut across the trail, and fastened it to a tree in the swamp.

Then he obliterated all signs of his work, and arranged the grass over the wire until it was so completely covered that only minute examination would reveal it.

They entered Freckles' room with coarse oaths and jests.

In a few moments, his specimen case with its precious contents was rolled into the swamp, while the saw was eating into one of the finest trees of the Limberlost.
The first report from the man on watch was that Duncan had driven to the South camp; the second, that Freckles was coming.

The man watching was sent to see on which side the boy turned into the path; as they had expected, he took the east.