"That came very near ending in the death of us both: nothing but the oak
saved me. I wonder whether I am going right."

He raised his head from his examination, and looked about him, but he
was without the means of judging whether he was following the proper
direction or not. When leaving the scene of his encounter with the deer,
he had taken the course that seemed to be right, without pausing until
he could make himself certain in the matter.

This is pretty sure, in a majority of cases, to lead one astray, but it
so happened with Nick that he headed in a bee-line for the camp, where
the impatient Sam Harper was awaiting him.

But the error came afterward: he toiled forward without any guide, and
soon began to turn to the left, so that he was in reality moving on the
circumference of a large circle, without suspecting how much he wandered
from the true course.

This peculiar mistake is made by many who are lost in the wilderness,
and is supposed to be due to the fact that everybody is either right or
left handed, instead of being ambidextrous as we all ought to be.

One side of the body being stronger than the other, we unconsciously
exert the limb on that side the most, and swerve from a straight line,
unless we have something to direct in the shape of a landmark or
guiding-post.

It was not until Nick had gone a long ways out of the right course that
he suspected his error: the appearance of the camp fire which Sam Harper