It was Thad who uttered this low hiss of warning. His action was prompt in addition, for raising the lantern, he gave one sturdy puff, causing the flame to vanish.
Utter darkness surrounded them. Aleck had dropped the leg of the big wolf, and drew back the hammer of his rifle.
"Perhaps it was the other cub, Thad?" he whispered, as softly as the night wind creeps in and out of the trees, caressing each leaf as it passes on.
"No, it sounded more like voices!" came the equally low reply.
"Voices! Oh! do you mean men may be near us?" gasped Aleck, a cold chill passing over him at the dreadful prospect of losing his long-sought patrimony just after finding it.
"It sounded like that Kracker; listen, and we'll soon know," Thad went on to say; and crouching there, the two boys waited for a repetition of the suspicious sound.