tablished," answered Benson. "But
the kind that are in this neighborhood don't like white men very much,
and they only come around the fort when it's necessary. But we may meet
some after buffalo. An Injun will do a heap to get a critter like that."

The old scout said it would be useless to go out in a body to look for
buffalo, and so it was arranged that he should first go over the ground
alone, leaving the captain and the two boys to look for smaller game.

This settled, Benson soon set off, and a little later Captain Moore,
Joe, and Darry took their way along some bushes skirting a small
water-course. They went on foot, leaving their horses tethered near the
shelter.

"I will go up one side of the stream, and you can go up the other," said
the captain. "By doing that we'll be sure to stir up anything within a
hundred yards of the water."

The boys agreed, and soon each member of the party was hard at work, on
the hunt for any small game the vicinity might afford.

It was not long before they gained a spot where the underbrush along the
brook was thick. Here the stream divided into two branches, and, without
knowing it, the captain and the boys became gradually more and more
separated, the brush and small trees hiding each from the other.

"I don't see much," said Joe, after half a mile had been covered. "Those
little birds aren't worth wasting powder and shot on."

"It looks to me as if somebody had gone over this ground," returned
Darry. "See here, aren't those fresh footprints?"

"I believe they are. And see, here are the prints of several horses'
hoofs. Benson didn't come this way, did he?"

"I don't think he did."

"Then there must be other hunters not far off."

They continued on their way, coming to a halt where the branch of the
brook entered a small, rocky canyon.

"No use of going further," said Joe. "Let us retrace our steps."

"Where can your brother be? I haven't heard him for some time."

Joe set up a yell, and both listened attentively. No answer came back.
Then both called in concert. Still the silence continued.

"It's mighty queer," was Joe's comment "Let us go back. Perhaps he's in
trouble."

CHAPTER XVI.

CAPTAIN MOORE'S ADVENTURE.

In the meanwhile, never dreaming of the danger at hand, Captain Moore
pursued his way up the other branch of the water-course. Here the
underbrush was even more dense than where the boys were, and
consequently he did not think it strange t