“How about those legs of yours?” said Larry over his shoulder.
“They’ll run—they’ve got to run!” gasped Purdick. “Pitch out, and I’ll try to keep you in sight.”
Luckily, this last race was a short one. A scant quarter of a mile farther on they came to the park-like opening where their camp had been pitched, and in another minute they were sliding down to the little flat where they had built their fire and spread the beds of fir tips.
The lost book was there, lying on the ground at the roots of the big tree, just where it had fallen from Purdick’s hands. If the night raiders had had a light of any sort, they could hardly have helped seeing it. But they had probably meant to make their attack a surprise, for which the moon was then giving sufficient light, and, finding the fire out and the camp deserted, had doubtless begun the pursuit at once.
Larry, being about two jumps ahead of Purdick, snatched up the book, and whirling quickly with arms outspread, swept his slighter companion back into the shelter of the wood.
“They’re coming—they’re right here!” he hissed; and they had barely time to fling themselves down under a low-growing tree when the three men appeared on the trail leading from the upper canyon and halted in the little intervale.
From where they lay under the drooping branches of the friendly little tree the two boys could see their late pursuers quite plainly. The cripple was riding one of the horses, with his crutch thrust under the saddle leather. The one the cripple had called “Dowling” was riding the other horse, and the third, the biggest of the three, was afoot.
At the halt the cripple barked a command at the one who was walking.
“Take a look at their camp and see if they’ve left anything worth swipin’, Bart,” he said; and the big man lounged up to the wood edge, kicked at the remains of the fire, turned the beds over with an investigative foot, and even went so far as to stoop and look around under the low-spreading branches of the nearer trees. As he did this, it was only Larry’s quick wit that saved them from certain discovery. With a swift premonition of what the man was going to do, he reached up and pulled one of the low-hanging branches of the little tree down so that its foliage screened them perfectly. But for that, the peering robber must have seen them.
“Nothin’ doin’,” said the man gruffly as he straightened up; and a few seconds later the two riders and their foot follower had gone on to disappear around a jutting cliff in the canyon.