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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."

"Then that is where I must have gotten mixed up—maybe after we pulled Tom from the mud."

"We'll have to go back," came from Tom. "Too bad! But it can't be helped. I don't blame you, Dick," he added, hastily.

"Neither do I," put in Sam. "Anybody might make such a mistake, with nothing but that smoky lantern to guide him."

They turned back, and after a while reached the edge of the swamp. Here, after a long search, they found their own footprints.