“No,” answered Bob, and as Ned shook his head negatively he asked:
“Did the professor have a revolver with him?”
“I told him to take one when we started out from the ranch, and always keep it with him,” said Jerry. “Whether he did or not I can’t say.”
“Let’s see if he left it with his stuff in the tent,” suggested Ned.
They looked near the place where the professor had slept. Some of his belongings—spare insect nets, specimen boxes and the like—were on the ground, but there was no weapon of any sort.
“Guess he must have taken it,” Jerry said. “The question is—will he think to use it?”
“He ought to have used it on whatever attacked him,” Bob said.
The boys became silent. They loved Professor Snodgrass and they did not know what to do to help him. That he was in trouble they knew. But it was literally groping in the dark to try to do anything further until daylight.
They went back into the tent, for it was warm there from the heat of the blaze, but none of them felt like sleeping. Bob got up and began to rummage among some packages.