“I win!” cried Roger, as he caught hold of one of the saddles.
At the same moment, Phil touched another of the animals, and a few seconds later Dave and Ben did the same.
“Pretty close race for all of us!” cried Ben; and then, of a sudden, he looked around. “Where is Shadow?”
The four who had reached the horses looked back toward the brushwood and the rocks around which they had made their way. They waited for several seconds, expecting each instant that the former story-teller of Oak Hall would show himself. But Shadow failed to appear.
“Hello, Shadow! Hello! Where are you?” sang out Dave, at the top of his lungs.
No answer came to this call, and one after another the others also summoned their missing chum. They listened intently, but not a sound of any kind broke the quietness of the mountain top.
“Something has happened to him, that’s sure,” remarked Roger, his face growing grave.
“I guess we had better go back and look for him,” announced Dave.
CHAPTER XIII
TO THE RESCUE OF SHADOW
“Who saw Shadow last? Does anybody know?” questioned Dave, as the whole crowd looked at each other in perplexity.