LOST!
From the moment when his brother had cried to him to drop, Tom had
kept his eyes on the bear, and when he saw the beast plunge forward
and realized that it was dead, he leaped to his feet, his pale face
telling of the awful strain under which he had been.
The reaction from their excitement made Larry and Horace tremble
and, for the time, they could only look from their companion to the
carcass of the bear, too unnerved to speak.
Tom was the first to recover from the fright, and he thanked the
others for what they had done.
"Let's not talk about it," interposed Larry. "The thing for us to
do is to get out of here lively. The reverberations from those
shots are echoing yet. The raiders must have heard them, and
they'll know some one is on their trail, so they will either come
back to sec who it is or else hide to waylay us."
Tom and Horace were perfectly willing to give up following the
trail farther, and all three were retracing their steps when the
elder of the chums cried:
"The rifle! Tom, you forgot to pick up your rifle."
"Which shows I was some scared," and he smiled apologetically.
"But it's a worse one on Larry and me," protested Horace. "There's
some excuse for you. But the bear wasn't charging us."
"Oh, well there's no harm done," returned Larry, pleased at the
spirit Horace's words showed. "We can go back and get it. It's a
mighty good thing, though, that we thought of It before we reached
the ponies. From the looks of the sky and the shadows it won't be
long before dusk, and Mr. Wilder told us night comes quickly in the
mountains."
Ere Larry had finished speaking they had started back to the scene
of their encounter.
Yet when they reached the spot Tom's rifle was nowhere to be seen.
In dismay the boys looked at one another. Already the mountains
were turning purple-black in the twilight, the shadows transforming
the trees and rocks into weird figures.
"Perhaps it's under the bear," hazarded Horace, his low voice
evidencing the awe which the silence and the surroundings inspired
in him.
"Then give a hand while we move him," commanded Larry. "It won't
do to stay here long or we may lose our way as well as the rifle."
Little relishing the thought of wandering through the woods in the
dark, the boys seized one of the paws and pulled with all their
might.
But, to their surprise, they could move the carcass scarcely at all.
"My, but he's a monster!" gasped Larry. "It's only a waste of
valuable time to try to lift him or even move him. The only thing
we can do is to try to feel under him with our hands."
Dropping to their knees, the lads thrust their arms under the
shaggy fur, being able to reach far; enough to make sure that the
much-wanted rifle was not beneath the body of the bear.
"Bet he knocked it over the cliff," declared Horace. "From which
side did he strike it, Tom?"
"More than I know. All I could see was paws. The air was full of
them and they seemed to come from all directions at once."
This explanation brought laughter to Larry and Horace, which ceased
abruptly, however, as from somewhere on the mountains there
suddenly rang out a low wail, more like the howl of a coyote than
anything else, yet with a certain difference that even the chums
were able to distinguish.
"Whatever that is, I don't care to meet it," exclaimed Horace.
"Let's go back. We've still got two rifles. If we stick to the
plains till we join father we can get along all right."
"Suppose we don't meet your father, what then?" returned Larry.
"Always looking for more trouble, as if we didn't have enough
already," chided Tom. "Of course we'll meet him. Anyhow, this is
no place to argue about it. If you and Horace can't protect me,
I'll take both your rifles and watch over the two of you."
There was a suggestion of mockery in Tom's voice, but taking it
good naturedly, Larry replied:
"Oh, no you won't. You can't throw your gun away every time you
get scared and then take ours from us. You just get in between
Horace and me. Horace, you lead because you know how to follow a
trail better, and I'll keep off the bears and raiders," he added
with a smile.
The movements of the boys, however, were more rapid than their
words, and they were traveling the trail once more ere Larry's
joking allusion to the loss of the rifle and the protection he
would afford.
So long as their way lay among the rocks they followed the trail
with little difficulty, but when they entered the woods their
troubles began in earnest.
None too self-possessed in the dark, even when going about the
ranch, when he entered the inky darkness caused by the maze of
boughs and foliage, Horace lost his head completely, and it did not
take the comrades long to realize they had wandered from the trail.
"Better let me take the lead, Horace; I'm taller," said Larry, at
the same time giving his brother a poke In the ribs as a warning
not to object.
"Well, you'll have to be a giraffe to see your way over the tops of
these trees," chuckled Tom.
Their plight was too serious to admit of jest, however, and after
wandering for half an hour, stumbling over dead limbs and running
into trees and branches, they halted in despair.
"I remember Si told us back home that when a man's lost he
generally travels in a circle," said Tom.
"So he did, and he said It was usually to the left, because a man
takes a longer step with his right foot," added Larry.
"That may help when you know which is the right and which is the
left of the way you have been going, but here we've turned round to
talk, so we don't even know that much," interposed Horace.
"That's a fact," admitted the elder of the chums reluctantly as he
realized that by facing one another they had lost all sense of
direction. "It's a good thing you thought of it, Horace, or we
might have got ourselves into a worse mess than we're in now,"
"If it weren't for all that good food cooked by Hop Joy back with
the horses and the fact that I'm hungry, I'd be in favor of staying
right where we are till morning," announced Tom.
"I reckon that is the best thing we can do, anyhow," declared his
brother.
"Not with my appetite," retorted Tom.
"This is no time to be funny," reprimanded Larry. "If we keep on
moving, we may never get out, while if we stay here we can climb
into one of these trees and be safe till daylight shows us----"
"By jove! That's the very thing!" exclaimed the younger of the
chums, and there was such a tone of genuine enthusiasm in his voice
that the others asked excitedly:
"What?"
"Why, the trees. We won't need to sleep in them. By climbing a
tall one, we can get the lay of the land as soon as moonlight
comes, which will show us at least how to get out onto the plains
again."
"Hooray!" cried Larry and Horace together.
Each realized the plan was feasible, provided the night was not
cloudy, and once on the prairie it would not be difficult for the
young rancher to lead the way to the horses. And, although they
knew that the moon would not rise for two hours at least, they were
so eager to try the plan that they began to discuss who should be
the one to do the climbing.
The two brothers claimed preference because they were both stronger
and taller than their companion, but Horace silenced them by
declaring that not only could he go higher because he was lighter,
but that he would be able to recognize their whereabouts from his
knowledge of the mountains.
Restraining their impatience as best they could, the boys sat down.
"When we do get out, which way shall we go to join Mr. Wilder and
the others?" asked Larry.
This question started further discussion. One suggestion after
another was made only to be rejected because of some obstacle, and
finally they decided the safest thing to do would be to ride till
they found the trail over which the cattle had been driven from the
bottoms and follow that.
Soon Horace climbed a convenient tree.
"We sure are dubs!" he cried.
"Why? Is the moon up?" asked the two chums eagerly..
"No, the moon isn't up. I don't need it. The stars are bright
enough. We've been sitting here fretting all this while within a
hundred yards of the prairie!"