“Great Scott!” Hal ejaculated. “We’ve got to get out of here some way. We can’t stand here and be shot down.”
“Wait,” said Chester, as Hal started to move away, and pulled the latter to the ground, where he had dropped himself.
“What is it?” demanded Hal.
“Let me look at that gun you have a moment.”
Without a word Hal passed it over. Chester examined it as carefully as possible in the dark.
“I don’t believe there is more than one man in these woods,” he finally said. “Now, you stay here, and I shall try and work round behind him.”
Without waiting for a reply Chester started crawling away, not directly toward the spot where the last flash of fire had come from, but bearing off well toward the right.
Hal started to protest, but, before he could utter half a dozen words, Chester had disappeared in the darkness. Hal lay in silence for some time. Finally, putting his cap upon a stick, he poked it cautiously out from behind the tree, where it was silhouetted against the opening between the trees.
A shot followed, and the cap leaped into the air.
“Good thing it wasn’t my head,” said Hal ruefully. “But if I can keep that fellow’s attention centered on me, Chester may be able to nab him.”