“We’ve got him! We’ve got him!” yelled Nat excitedly. “Come on!”
“No use,” said Jack quietly, placing a restraining hand on Nat’s arm.
“No use? Why?”
Jack pointed to a bare spot below the rock and some distance to the right. Along it the ram was running at full speed.
“Guess I only grazed him,” he said. “He isn’t hurt much when he can run like that.”
“Side-splitting sandpaper!” exclaimed Nat. “That’s tough luck. Why did I miss?”
“That’s nothing. I missed him, too. We can’t hit everything we aim at, or it wouldn’t be any fun—especially for the animals.”
“Let’s trail him,” proposed Nat.
“No, it’s too late. We’d better get back to camp.”
They found Budge with the horses, and the gum-chewing lad did not appear to have moved, but three big dead jack-rabbits at his side showed that he had not been idle.