human
I thought I knew my way about in the woods, but I find I don't know as much as a yearling, answered Rector.
gpt
Where is that guide?
human
Maybe he has gone home,
gpt
I guess he has not gone far,
human
He said he wanted to get a look at an old burn some little way to the northward.
gpt
I'll go look for him,
human
For the sake of making conversation, which way would you go if you were about to follow Mr. Vaughn?
gpt
That way,
human
And you, Ned?
gpt
Just the opposite direction.
human
Chunky, which way would you go?
gpt
I? I wouldn't go at all. I would just sit right down here, plump.
human
You would show your good sense in doing that very thing. Boys, you are all wrong, except Chunky. Mr. Vaughn went that way, to the eastward.
gpt
How do you know?
human
Because I watched him and saw him blaze a tree with his hatchet.
gpt
But we don't see any blazes,
human
That is because we are on the wrong side of it, Walt,
gpt
Right you are,
human
But why doesn't he put the blaze on this side of the trees so we can see them?
gpt
For the very good reason that he marked the trees on the side that would be facing him when he returned, Tad informed them.
human
However, had he desired to mark his trees so that one approaching from the way he will return would not see the blazes, he would have blazed the trees on this side. That is what is called back-blazing.
gpt
Tad is the woodsman,
human
He thinks he is,
gpt
No, I don't. I have realized, since coming up here, that I don't know enough about the woods to tell when a tree is going to fall. Did you notice another trick of Mr. Vaughn's when we were coming out here?
human
He broke the tops of bushes at intervals. I noticed, too, that he bent them all in the same direction. I don't know the meaning of it, but I guess it had something to do with direction.
gpt
There he comes now. Ask him,
human
Hello! I thought you boys would be lost before this,
gpt
We might have been, at that, declared Ned.
human
At least Walt would have been. Chunky wouldn't move and Tad, though he pointed the way you had gone, wouldn't let us move away. We were talking about your having bent over some bushes on the trail here. Tad said it was to indicate the direction we had taken as you bent them all in the same direction.
gpt
Master Tad has keen eyes. He is right. In venturing into strange forests, far from human habitation, one should do this occasionally in addition to blazing or marking trees with the hatchet. The way to do is to bend a green bush over in the way you are going, snapping the stem or clipping it with the hatchet, but letting it adhere by the bark, so that the under or lighter side of the foliage will be looking you in the face when you return.
human
Why, a man couldn't lose his way with that kind of a trail, could he?
gpt
Well, he might, admitted Cale.
human
But, if he is being pursued by enemies, or for any other reason does not wish to leave a conspicuous trail, he had better not bend bushes. In blazing, remember that a single blaze should always be made on the side away from the camp. If the side toward the camp be marked it should be with two blazes instead of one. Remember that. It may come in handy one of these days. Master Tad, what is the gun signal when one is lost?
gpt
A shot, a pause, then two shots,
human
Right. What time of day? Wait! Let's see if any of the others know,
gpt
I don't understand what you mean,
human
What time of the day would you pay attention to that sort of a signal?
gpt
Any time I heard it,
human
Provided, of course, that there wasn't anybody else to go.
gpt
I give it up,
human
After four o'clock in the afternoon is the rule, I believe,
gpt
Yes, that's right. That is the hour the camp-keeper is supposed to blow his horn to call home the wanderers. We are too far away, of course, to hear the horn. We must be all of twenty miles from camp. We are now five miles from our ponies.
human
It strikes me that it is pretty near time for us to be getting to the animals, then,
gpt
Why?
human
Because it is going to rain and the afternoon is getting late.