The wood was not extensive enough to permit a very extended hunt, and when Fred paused a second time he was sure the end was at hand.
He was alarmed when he found, from the stillness, that Bud Heyland was not moving. Fred waited quietly, and then began slowly rising until he stood at his full height, and looked carefully around him.
Nothing could be seen of the bully, though the watcher was confident he was not far off, and it would not do to venture any further just then.
"If it was only the night time," thought Fred, "I wouldn't be so scared, for he might take me for a man; but it would never do for him to find me here."
The sudden ceasing of the rustling, which had betrayed the passage of Bud Heyland a few minutes previous could not be anything else but proof that he was near by.
"Maybe he suspects something, and is waiting to find whether he is seen by any one. Strange that in looking round he does not look up," whispered Fred to himself, recalling an anecdote which he had once heard told in Sunday-school: "Bud looks everywhere but above, where there is that Eye which never sleeps, watching his wrong-doing."
A boy has not the patience of a man accustomed to watching and waiting, and when several minutes had passed without any new developments, Fred began to get fidgety.
"He has gone on further, and I have lost him; he has done this to lead me off, and I won't see anything more of him."
But the boy was in error, and very speedily saw a good deal more of Bud Heyland than he wished.