, looked straight
ahead, and exclaimed loudly, "There, I can see you. Don't be stupid,
you old ostrich, hiding there. Now then, come out."

Scarlett's ruse was a failure. "He knows it isn't true," muttered the
lad. "Serve me right for telling lies. It was only my fun, Fred," he
cried hastily, to make honest confession of his fib. "But don't go on
like that. Come out now, and let's get back. It makes me so hot."

He listened, and in the stillness of the wilderness he could have heard
any one breathing, if he had been close at hand; but all was perfectly
still, until, high up in a neighbouring tree, a greenfinch uttered its
mournful little harsh note, which sounded like the utterance of the word
_wheeze_.

"Surely he hasn't hurt himself," muttered Scarlett; and then aloud, as
an uncomfortable sensation came over him--"Here, Fred! Fred! lad, where
are you? Why don't you speak?"

"As if I don't know where he is," muttered Scarlett again, now growing
thoroughly alarmed. "He must have slipped and hurt his back.--All
right; I'm coming," he cried. "With you directly, as soon as I can get
through this horrible tangle.--That's better. Now then, what's the
matter? Fred, where are you? I say, do call out, or something. I
don't like it. Fred, lad, are you hurt?"

And all this time he was forcing his way onward, the brambles tearing
and the old oak wood crackling. The greenfinch uttered its mournful
_wheeze_ once more, and fled in alarm as Scarlett broke down a
good-sized branch which barred his way, the rotten dry wood snapping
with a sharp report; and then, panting and hot after his heavy labour to
get through so short a space, he forced himself to the place where Fred
had landed, and, to his utter astonishment, found that on his side the
whole of the trunk was gone, merely leaving the shell-like portion which
had impeded him before, while below the crumbled tree-trunk was a great
gap.

For a few moments he stood there aghast. Then, recovering his presence
of mind, he pushed aside more of the growth which impeded him, and
looked down into a narrow pit which was choked with broken wood and
ferns.

"Fred!" he shouted; but there was no reply. There, however, beneath
him, he could see his companion's head and shoulders, with eyes closed,
or seeming to be in the dim light, and only about five feet below where
he stood.

Without a moment's hesitation, but trembling the while for fear that
this might be some