Teddy concluded not to awaken the savages, as they would hardly coincide with him.  So he cautiously rose to his feet, and walking around them, made off in the darkness.  He was prudent enough to obtain an idea of the general direction before starting, so as to prevent himself going astray; after which he pressed the pursuit with all possible speed.  At intervals he paused and listened, but it seemed as if everything excepting himself was asleep.  He heard no sound of animal or man:  He kept his eyes flitting hither and thither, for he had hopes of chancing upon the camp-fire of the abductor.

It is always a difficult matter to keep one’s “reckoning” in the woods.  If they be of any extent, it requires extraordinary precautions upon the part of an inexperienced person to prevent himself from being lost.  Should he endeavor to travel by night, it would be almost a miracle indeed if he could save himself from going totally astray.

Teddy had every disadvantage to contend against, and he had not journeyed a half-hour, when his idea of his own position was just the opposite of truth.  As he had not yet become aware of it, however, it perhaps was just as well as if he had committed no error.  He was pressing forward, with that peculiar impelling feeling that it was only necessary to do so ultimately to reach his destination, when a star-like glimmer caught his eye.  Teddy stopped short, and his heart gave a great bound, for he believed the all-important opportunity had now come.  He scanned the light narrowly, but it was only a flickering point, such as a lantern would give at a great distance at night.  The light alone was visible, but no flame.  It was impossible to form any correct idea of its location, although, from the fact that the nature of the wood must prevent the rays penetrating very far, he was pretty certain it was comparatively close at hand.

With this belief he commenced making his way toward it, his movements certifying his consciousness that a mis-step would prove fatal.  To his dismay, however, he had advanced but a dozen steps or so when the light disappeared, and he found it impossible to recover it.  He moved from side to side, forward and backward, but it availed nothing, and he was about to conclude it had been extinguished, when he retreated to his starting-point and detected it at once.

Keeping his eye fixed upon it, he now walked slowly, but at the same point as before it disappeared.  This, he saw, must arise from some limb, or branch or tree interfering, and it only remained for him to continue advancing in the same line.  Having proceeded a hundred rods or so, he began to wonder that he still failed to discover it.  Thinking he might be mistaken in the distance, he went forward until he was sure he had passed far beyond it, when he turned and looked behind him.  Nothing but the dim figures of the tree-trunks rewarded his gaze.

Fully a half-hour was spent in wandering to and fro in the further efforts to locate the light that had caught his eye, and he finally sought to obtain his first stand-point.  Whether he succeeded or not Teddy never could tell, but he never saw nor learned anything more regarding the camp-fire to which he was confident that he had been in such close proximity.