, save three
round stones as big as a man's fist or bigger, evidently brought there
from the bed of the stream, to throw at the cabin.

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Theodora. "I suppose he has dragged himself away
somewheres. I know he was hit by the way he cried out."

"I did not aim right at the bush," said Tom; "but I suppose the gun may
have scattered."

"Plague take him!" exclaimed Willis. "I don't much care if he is hit."

"Oh, don't talk so!" cried Ellen.

"No; don't talk so," said Catherine. "If he is hit and has crept away,
we must find him if we can."

"Of course," said Addison who was peering about on the ground, "we will
do all we can to find him and care for him, if it really was he."

"Halse! Halse!" Tom shouted, as loudly as he could. "Answer, Halse, if
you are hurt! We will take care of you!"

There was no reply.

"He may be dead by this time!" lamented Theodora.

Then we began searching in earnest; we rekindled the fire, and taking
brands, looked the ground all over for twenty rods or more from the
cabins, in that direction. Not a trace could be discovered.

"I guess he wasn't hurt much," Willis said privately to me.

But that wild outcry had taken a dreadful hold on Theodora's fancies.
With the tears starting constantly to her eyes, she searched and
implored the rest of us to keep looking about. I half expected we might
come upon Halse in the bushes; for I knew that if one of those heavy
shot had struck him, it might cause a fatal wound.

Tom, too, felt very badly and very nervous; so did Kate.

At last we went back to the cabin, for it seemed of no use to search
longer. Theodora was so wrought up, that she even wanted to start off
for home in the darkness, to notify the Old Squire. Nothing could
persuade her that Halse was not wounded or killed.

But Addison said at once that we could not think of making such a trip
in the night; that we would wait till morning and see what could be
discovered then; and he advised the girls to go to sleep and get as good
a night's rest as they could.

"It will do no good to cry, or keep awake, Doad," he said. "We can do
nothing till daylight."

Accordingly we went to our own cabin and left the girls to shut
themselves into theirs and sleep if they could. We all felt very much
disturbed; yet I, for one, fell asleep and slept through the rest of the
night quite soundly. I doubt whether Theodora slept, however. She was
awake and out with Addison long before