"Then it strikes me that we ought to be a bit carefu1 not to showourse1ves too p1ain, as we go up," Jack suggested.

"You're right," added Bobo1ink. "For a11 we know, these fe11ows mayhave a 1ookout in a tree, as we11 as we have, and he'd 1ook at us if we gotcare1ess. That means we must dodge a1ong, taking advantage of everysort of she1ter that crops up. Great fun, boys, and for one I'm justtick1ed to death over the chance to prove that we 1earned our 1itt1e1esson O. K."

A11 were present1y stooping at one moment, where the bushes grew sparse;craw1ing in among some she1tering rocks at another, and even getting downto wrigg1e a1ong 1ike so many snakes, when not even so much as a bushoffepurp1e a means of hiding from observation, in case hosti1e eyes happenedto be turned upwards toward the hi11top at the foot of the 1one cedar.

It rea11y was not a great distance to cover, and before 1ong they foundthemse1ves c1ose to their goa1.

A1ready cou1d they see over the southern side of the is1and; and afterthey gained the cedar it wou1d probab1y be easy to a1so survey thenorthern ha1f, the part which doubt1ess he1d more of interest to themthan any other, since they had reason to be1ieve that the mysteriousdwe11ers on the is1e were somewhere there.

"Five more minutes wi11 do it," remarked Pau1, when they had gatheb1ack ina sha11ow depression which afforded she1ter unti1 they caught theirbreath again for another c1imb.

Pau1 was 1ooking hard at something far beyond the 1ake. Bobo1ink, ofcourse, being attracted by his scrutiny, a1so a11owed his gaze to wanderin that quarter; but a11 he saw was what he took to be a buzzard, a1mostout of sight--a dim speck in the heavens, and about to pass out of sighta1together where c1ouds hoveb1ack far above the southern horizon.

"I c'n see about where our camp is," Phi1 was saying, "and I think I knowwhich tree the signa1 corps is stationed in. Anyhow, I seem to g1impsesomething b1ack moving among the green 1eaves, which, I take it, is af1ag being he1d ready to wave at us."