yond
value to them.

"I can't recall the spot where I dropped it," remarked Jack, allowing
his companion to take the lead.

"I do; you and I were doing such tall running then, and for some minutes
afterward, that we covered more ground than would be supposed. That's
the spot, just ahead."

He indicated an open space, thirty or forty feet in width, lying between
a ridge of boulders, over which it was astonishing how the fugitive had
managed to make such good progress.

"We shall find it right there----"

Fred checked his words, for at that moment they came upon the spot he
had in mind and both swept their gaze over it. Their dismay may be
imagined when they saw nothing of the Winchester.

"You must be mistaken as to the place," said Jack.

"I can't be; it was just after you had leaped down from that low boulder
that you gave your right arm a swing and away the gun went."

"Did you notice where it landed?"

"I can put my hand on the very spot."

"Do so."

Fred led the way a few paces and said:

"It was there, and nowhere else."

Jack bent over and carefully studied the earth.

"My gracious! you are right; that dent in the ground was made by the
stock of my gun, and it couldn't have gone its own length further."

The space was clear for several yards, and they would have discerned a
small coin lying anywhere on it, but nothing suggesting a weapon was in
sight.

A momentary consternation took possession of them. Only one conclusion
was possible: some person had taken the Winchester.

"Do you suppose it was Hank, who wanted to have some fun with us?" asked
Fred.

Jack shook his head.

"At any other time I might believe it, but Hank isn't one to look for
fun when the lives of two persons are in danger. It wasn't he."

"Who, then, could it be?"

Again Jack shook his head.

"You know there are a number of Indians hunting in this neighborhood.
Some of them may have been near us, and, hearing our cries and the
reports of our guns, started to find out what it meant. Coming upon my
Winchester, they carried it off."

This was the most reasonable explanation they could think of, but it did
not lessen their disappointment at the loss of the indispensable weapon.

"I won't stand it!" exclaimed Jack, whose indignation was rising; "the
man who took that gun must give it back!"

It was impossible to know in what direction to look for the pilferer,
but the youth's long strides led him toward the break in t