"I don't know how a run in the darkness will go," said Dick. "But we can try it. But I don't see how we are to steer."
"I've got my pocket compass with me," answered Sam. "That may help some. We know those towns are west of us. We can sail along until we see the lights and then go down and ask about the touring car."
Skirting the swamp with only the rays from the lantern to aid them was no easy task, and once Tom slipped from a clump of rushes and went down over his ankles in soft mud.
"Hi! hi! help me out!" he yelled. "Quick, before I get in any deeper!"
"Stand still!" called back Dick, and placed the lantern in another clump of rushes. Then he caught hold of a tree that was handy and took a grip on Sam's hand. "Now catch hold of Tom," he went on, and the youngest Rover did so. Then came a long and strong pull, and with a sucking sound, poor Tom came out of the sticky mud and landed beside his brothers.
"Wow! that's a mess!" said the fun-loving Rover, as he surveyed his feet, plastered thick with the mud.
"Stick to the dry ground after this," advised Dick. "Come on, the dead leaves will soon brush that mud off." And forward he went once more, holding the lantern as before. In a little while after this the swamp was left behind, and then progress through the woods was more agreeable.
"Dick, don't you think we ought to be getting to the _Dartaway_ pretty soon?" asked Tom, after a quarter of an hour more had passed and they were still moving forward.
"It didn't seem so far away as this," put in Sam. "Are you sure you are following the trail?"
"You can see for yourselves," answered Dick, and held the lantern close to the ground.
"Footsteps, sure enough," murmured Tom. Then of a sudden he bent closer. "But look!" he cried. "They are not ours!"
"What?" exclaimed his two brothers, in surprise.
"These footprints are not ours--they are altogether too big. We have picked up and are following the wrong trail!"
All started in astonishment at the footprints before them. What Tom had said was true--the prints were altogether too large to have been made by their own feet in walking through the woods.
"How could I have made such a mistake!" murmured Dick.
"I wonder where you got mixed up?" said Sam. "I looked at the prints down by the swamp. They seemed to be O. K. there."