Tom, keeping at the same time a thorough watch for any danger
that might molest themselves. But no danger showed, nor did they
find Tom or his trail. He, too, had vanished into nothingness,
and Henry and Sol, despite their mental strength, felt cold
shivers. They came back at last, far toward morning, to the bank
of the creek. It was here as elsewhere a narrow but deep stream
flowing between banks so densely wooded that they were almost
like walls.

"It will be daylight soon," said Shif'less Sol, "an' I think we'd
better lay low in thicket an' watch. It looks ez ef we couldn't
find anything, so we'd better wait an' see what will find us."

"It looks like the best plan to me," said Henry, " but I think we
might first hunt a while on the other side of the creek. We
haven't looked any over there."

"That's so," replied Shif'less Sol, "but the water is at least
seven feet deep here, an' we don't want to make any splash
swimmin'. Suppose you go up stream, an' I go down, an' the one
that finds a ford first kin give a signal. One uv us ought to
strike shallow water in three or four hundred yards."

Henry followed the current toward the south, while Sol moved up
the stream. The boy went cautiously through the dense foliage,
and the creek soon grew wider and shallower. At a distance of
about three hundred yards lie came to a point where it could be
waded easily. Then he uttered the low cry that was their signal,
and went back to meet Shif'less Sol. He reached the exact point
at which they had parted, and waited. The shiftless one did not