“There must be some sort of a route from this point to our camp,” he told himself.
He was about to move onward through the forest when another torch came into view. Again he ran for shelter, and was not an instant too soon. Four red men were marching forward to the river, and between each pair was a captive, disarmed, and with his hands tied tightly behind him.
“Pep Frost!” murmured Joe, as he caught a good look at the first of the captives. It was indeed the pioneer the youth had mentioned. His garb was torn and dirty, and his face streaked with blood, showing that he had fought desperately.
The second captive was also dirty and bloodstained, and walked with a limp, as if wounded in the left leg. As he came closer Joe could scarcely suppress a cry of horror.
“Father!” he gasped, and he was right. The second captive was Ezra Winship.
CHAPTER IV
LOST UNDERGROUND
“Oh!”
That was the single cry which Harry uttered as he plunged over the edge of the cliff into the stream below.
As he went down his gun was torn from his grasp by the bushes, and an instant later he struck the stream with a splash and went down straight to the bottom.
The breath was knocked out of him by the fall, and when he came again to the surface he was more than half unconscious. He felt himself borne along by the current, and there followed a strange humming in his ears. Then his senses completely forsook him.