The boys threw themselves down on the ground, some of them glad of the chance to recuperate without having to show the white feather. It was very thoughtful of the leader, to be sure, displaying this regard for their natural pride.
"He sure can't be a great ways from here, Elmer?" remarked Matty. "Seems to me the trail has been growing fresher lately."
"That's right, it has," replied the other, nodding his head. "One place I found where Dolph had rested, I don't know how long, but perhaps half an hour; for the child walked again after they started, as if refreshed by the stop."
"Then we're apt to run on them any old time now?" suggested Toby, eagerly.
"Just what we are," Elmer answered, as he kept his face turned upward toward the top of the little bluff overhead.
"What you looking at, Elmer?" demanded Red Huggins, half starting up.
"Just cast your eyes up where that clump of grass grows, fellows," the leader said, pointing his finger; "I thought I saw something moving there, and——"
What he meant to say remained unspoken, for just then a slice of the edge of the bluff suddenly gave way, and amid a mass of earth a human figure came rolling down the sharp incline!