CHAPTER XIII

LOST IN THE WOODS

Snap had fairly good luck while on the hunt.  He shot half a dozen rabbits and one of the plumpest partridges he had yet seen.

As he moved along, he listened for some shots from Shep, but, hearing none, concluded that his chum was having no success.

“It’s too bad,” thought Snap, at length.  “Perhaps I had better go back and get him to come this way.”

With his game in his bag and over his shoulder, he retraced his steps to where he had separated from Shep and began to call his chum.  Not getting any answer, he started after the other young hunter.

“He must have gone back,” he mused, coming to a halt when he was within a hundred feet of the tree in which poor Shep was a prisoner.  “And if that is so I may as well go, too.  He might at least have waited for me.”

Whistling carelessly to himself, Snap made his, way back to the camp.  He found nobody at hand, but presently Whopper hove into sight with some fish, followed by Giant.

“Hullo!  That’s a nice haul!” cried Whopper.  “How did Shep make out?”

“I don’t know.  Isn’t he here?”

“I haven’t seen him.”

“Neither have I,” put in the smallest of the young hunters.  “I thought he went out with you.”

“So he did; but we separated, and I thought he came home, as I couldn’t find any trace of him.”

“Oh, I guess he’ll come along after awhile,” observed Whopper.  “Maybe he is trying to bring in an extra lot of game.”

“I didn’t hear him doing any shooting,” answered Snap.

However, he was not much disturbed, and the boys sat around the camp for an hour, waiting for Shep to return.  Then they prepared dinner, and while eating talked about the sports still to come.

“I tell you, I don’t much like this,” said Snap, at last.  “I wish Shep was back in camp.”

“Do you think anything has really happened to him?” questioned Giant, quickly.

“I don’t know what to think.”

“Let us fire a signal.”

This suggestion from Whopper met with approval, and they fired a signal long before agreed upon—–­two shots in rapid succession.  They waited impatiently, but no answering shots came back.

“Let us go out and look for him,” said Giant.  “Perhaps he has fallen into a hole and broken a leg, or something like that.”

“Oh, there are lots of things could happen to a fellow out here,” answered Whopper.  “But I thought we could trust Shep to take care of himself.”

They waited a while longer, and then, putting the camp in order, set out on the hunt for the missing member of the gun club.

It was an easy matter to reach the spot where Snap and Shep had separated.  Then they took to the trail Shep had followed, until they came to a bit of a clearing.

“Oh my! look there!” ejaculated Giant, suddenly.  “Come back of the bushes, quick, before they see you!”