lanned to go into camp. Not a sign of a human being
greeted Tad's watchful eyes. The lad climbed the side of the rocks,
keeping his body hidden in the foliage as much as possible. He had
got about half way up when he paused to take a look over the plain
beneath him. The Pony Rider Boy could faintly make out the place
where his companions were in camp awaiting the result of his mission.

"I believe there's Chunky standing on that rise," muttered Tad. "Yes
it must be Chunky. I'll bet the professor doesn't know the boy is out
there. Chunky evidently is getting anxious about us."

Bang!

The shot sounded some distance to the eastward of where Tad was
secreted. Instinctively the lad glanced toward the camp again.
Stacy Brown no longer was to be seen. Tad Butler could not repress
a laugh. He had a pretty clear idea as to what had caused Chunky's
sudden disappearance. It did not occur to him that possibly Stacy
had been bit. As a matter of fact the unknown marksman's bullet had
grazed the head of the fat boy, instilling in that young gentleman
a more thorough respect for the mountaineer's marksmanship.

But now Tad's mind turned to the object of his visit to the mountain
range. He was there looking for the man who had fired the shot.
Ned Rector had heard the shot also. Both boys were making their way
toward the spot whence the shot had seemed to come. Ned had located
the sound much nearer than had Tad. The latter struck off in a
southeasterly direction which carried him still farther into the hills.
He had reasoned that the shooter was occupying a high point of vantage
somewhere farther in, whence he was taking pot shots at the camp of
the Pony Rider Boys. In this Tad was mistaken. The mountaineer was
much nearer the plains than Tad thought.

Ned started on a trot immediately after having heard the shot.

"I've got him this time!" exulted Rector. "I've got a chance to show
the fellows what sort of a trailer I am. They don't think I'm any
good, except Tad, and he knows better."

Tad, as he skulked along, was wondering if Ned had heard the shot and
hoping that his companion would make no false moves. Each boy was
determined to round up the man who had winged Stacy Brown and narrowly
missed killing the others of the party.

Night was coming on rapidly and it behooved the lads to make haste.
In the first place they did not know these hills, and, in the second,
the professor would become alarmed and co