isappear at once.

"Yes, sir, straight back as an arrow, and it's of no use to hide facts;
you must take your place as a man now, and act like one, having the hard
with the soft, so I shall speak plainly."

"You need not, Shaddy," said Rob sadly. "You are afraid he has been
badly hurt and carried off by Indians--perhaps killed."

"Nay, my lad; that's making worse of it than I thought. My ideas was
bad enough, but not so bad as yours, and I think mine's right."

"Then what do you think?" said Rob, as after a sharp glance round they
made for the spot where they had re-entered the clearing from the
forest.

"Tell you what I _don't_ think first, my lad," replied Shaddy: "I don't
think it's Indians, because I haven't seen a sign of 'em, and if I had I
fancy they'd be peaceable, stupid sort of folk. No: he's got into
trouble with some beast or another."

"Killed?"

"Nay, nay; that's the very worst of all. There's hundreds of ways in
which he might be hurt; and what I think is, that he has started to come
back, and turned faint and laid down, and perhaps gone to sleep, so that
we passed him; or perhaps he has lost his way."

"Lost his way?" cried Rob, with a shiver of dread.

"Yes, my lad. It's of no use to hide facts now."

"Then we shall never find him again, and he will wander about till he
lies down and dies."

"Ah! now you're making the worst of it again, sir. He might find the
way out again by himself, but we've got to help him. Maybe we shall be
able to follow his tracks; you and me has got to try that: an Indian or
a dog would do it easily. Well, you and me ought to have more stuff in
us than Indians or dogs, and if we make up our minds to do it, why, we
shall. So, come along, and let's see if we can't muster up plenty of
British pluck, say a bit of a prayer like men, and with God's help we'll
find him before we've done."

He held out his hand to Rob, who made a snatch at it and caught it
between his, to cling to it tightly as he gazed in the rough,
sun-blackened face before him, too much oppressed by emotions to utter a
word.

But words were not needed in the solemn silence of that grand forest.
Their prayer for help rose in the midst of Nature's grandest cathedral,
with its arching roof of boughs, through which in one spot came a ray of
brilliant light, that seemed to penetrate to Rob's heart and lighten him
with hope; and then once more they swung round and plunged into the
forest depths.