"He isn't here now!" rang out Jack's voice. "He has disappeared! He is trying to hide in these thick bushes. Scatter and search for him! If you see him running, shoot at his legs! Stop him somehow!"
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE VOICE IN THE NIGHT.
The excited lads beat the bushes in vain. Caleb Cooler had disappeared in a moment, as if the ground had opened and swallowed him. It seemed impossible that he could give them the slip in such a manner, but he had.
At last four very disgusted and angry boys stopped in a little opening and looked at each other.
"We are a set of chumps!" declared Hodge.
"That's so!" grunted Browning.
"Ought to have held onto the snake all the time," came savagely from Diamond. "Oh, if we had him here now!"