"I am with you."
"But we may be late" began Fred.
"Oh, Captain Putnam will excuse us when I tell him what delayed us."
The rowboat soon reached the shore, and Sam and Tom leaped to the brushwood, where the trail of the vanished fisherman was plainly to be seen.
It was decided that Fred and Powell should remain in charge of the rowboat, so that nobody might come and make off with the craft. Leaving their fishing outfits behind them the two Rover boys struck out through the bushes, and soon gained a narrow forest path running through the woods that skirted this section of Bass Lake.
"I wish we could catch Baxter," said Tom, on the way. "It would be a feather in our cap, Sam."
"We must be careful. More than likely he is armed, and he won't hesitate to shoot if he is cornered."
"Oh, I know that. The most we can do is to follow him until we reach some place where we can summon assistance."
The path led deeper and deeper into the woods and then along a fair-sized brook. They kept their eyes wide open, but could see nothing excepting a number of birds and an occasional
