Chapter XXIV

"Oh! rats!" exposulated [expostulated] his fellow scout. "Come off
your perch, Jack, and talk sense. You make me think of an old
Polly, just able to repeat things over and over. But to see us all
down on our knees staring at that trail made me remember the alarm
of poor old Robinson Crusoe when he found the footprint of the
cannibal on his island."