"
There was a suggestion of mockery in Tom's voice, but taking it
good naturedly, Larry replied:
"Oh, no you won't. You can't throw your gun away every time you
get scared and then take ours from us. You just get in between
Horace and me. Horace, you lead because you know how to follow a
trail better, and I'll keep off the bears and raiders," he added
with a smile.
The movements of the boys, however, were more rapid than their
words, and they were traveling the trail once more ere Larry's
joking allusion to the loss of the rifle and the protection he
would afford.
So long as their way lay among the rocks they followed the trail
with little difficulty, but when they entered the woods their
troubles began in earnest.
None too self-possessed in the dark, even when going about the
ranch, when he entered the inky darkness caused by the maze of
boughs and foliage, Horace lost his head completely, and it did not
take the comrades long to realize they had wandered from the trail.
"Better let me take the lead, Horace; I'm taller," said Larry, at
the same time giving his brother a poke In the ribs as a warning
not to object.
"Well, you'll have to be a giraffe to see your way over the tops of
these trees," chuckled Tom.
Their plight was too serious to admit of jest, however, and after
wandering for half an hour, stumbling over dead limbs and running
into trees and branches, they halted in despair.
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