than one man in these woods," he
finally said. "Now, you stay here, and I shall try and work round
behind him."

Without waiting for a reply Chester started crawling away, not
directly toward the spot where the last flash of fire had come from,
but bearing off well toward the right.

Hal started to protest, but, before he could utter half a dozen words,
Chester had disappeared in the darkness. Hal lay in silence for some
time. Finally, putting his cap upon a stick, he poked it cautiously
out from behind the tree, where it was silhouetted against the
opening between the trees.

A shot followed, and the cap leaped into the air.

"Good thing it wasn't my head," said Hal ruefully. "But if I can keep
that fellow's attention centered on me, Chester may be able to nab
him."

Once more he raised his cap on a stick and moved it about. Again there
was a sound of a shot. But, even as the bullet sped by, there was a
second report, and Hal heard his friend's voice raised in almost a
shout:

"I got him."

Quickly Hal sprang to his feet and dashed in the direction of his
friend's voice.

When Chester had left Hal he crawled slowly, and, making a wide
detour, came upon his unseen enemy from behind. The second time the
man had fired at Hal's hat, Chester was almost upon him.

Thinking that the man was shooting at his friend, being unconscious of
the ruse Hal was employing, Chester immediately turned his own weapon
loose upon the man, whom he could now plainly see. But, after firing,
the enemy had shifted his position slightly at the very moment that
Chester fired. Therefore, he escaped what otherwise would assuredly
have been a death wound--for Chester was a crack shot--and received
the ball in his pistol hand.

His weapon dropped to the ground, and he sent up a loud howl of pain.

Before he could seize the weapon in his other hand, Chester was upon
him, and Hal was hastening to the aid of his friend, for, wounded
though he was, the man put up a hard fight.

Chester forced him to the ground, but the man heaved him away with a
mighty kick. Chester fell sprawling on the ground, and his opponent
turned to grope for his revolver.

But, before he could pick it up, Hal was upon the scene. He took in
the situation at a glance, and sprang upon Chester's assailant.

Hal's first leap bore his opponent to the ground, where the boy
twisted one hand around the man's throat. But, if he thought to
overcome his opponent thus easily,