Hal grinned in spite of himself, as he replied: 

“He is that.  I suppose we should do something to help him, but I am frank to say I don’t know just what.”

“We’ll have to figure some way to get rid of that fellow,” said Edwards.  “He’s dangerous.  Apparently there is only one.”

“Tell you what,” said Hal, “you stick here.  I’ll sneak through the trees here for a quarter of a mile, cross the road and double back.  If I can go quietly enough perhaps I can catch him off his guard.”

Edwards considered this plan.

“Might be done,” he said finally.  “I don’t think of anything else.  Off with you then.”

Hal walked still deeper into the woods and then turned to his left.  Keeping himself well screened from the road he made his way carefully and silently along.  At last, when he felt sure that he could no longer be seen by their unexpected foe, he approached the road again.

The lad poked his head out cautiously and, after a quick glance back to make sure there was no one in sight, crossed the road at a bound, almost expecting as he did so to hear a bullet whiz near.

No bullet came.

Once safe on the other side, the lad turned again to his left and doubled back.  He went more cautiously now, making sure of each footstep that he might not warn the unseen foe of his approach.

In the woods there was the silence of death.

Hal, moving slowly forward, now felt that he must have reached the point from which the two shots had been fired and stopped and listened intently.  Once he thought he heard the sound of a snapping twig and became perfectly quiet, waiting for the sound to be repeated; but it did not come again.

“Guess I must have been mistaken,” the lad told himself, as he moved forward again.

Five minutes later Hal stopped suddenly in his tracks.  He had heard a sound close at hand and knew he was not mistaken this time.  A twig had snapped perhaps twenty yards to his right and as far ahead.

Hal grasped his automatic more firmly.

“Hope I get the first shot,” he muttered.

Suddenly he caught sight of a form as it flitted from one tree to another.  Quickly the lad raised his revolver and fired.

There was no outcry, and looking again, the lad saw no one.

“Missed him,” he muttered.  “Well, I’ve betrayed myself!  Now I’ll have to be more careful.”

He lay down upon the ground behind the tree where he had taken shelter and waited patiently.  Ten minutes later he thought he saw an object move behind a tree a scant fifteen yards away.

Again the lad fired.

This shot was followed by a startled cry as a figure leaped to its feet and started off through the woods at full speed.

Hal sprang to his feet.

“Halt!” he cried.

The figure seemed to run faster than before.

Hal paused and leveled his revolver in deliberate aim.  His finger tightened on the trigger—­then, suddenly he let his arm fall.