"What's the matter with my going on a scout?" asked Billie.
"Nothing the matter with your going," laughed Adrian, "but there might be with your coming back. No, I shall have to go, ankle or no ankle."
He slid from his horse, and almost before any one realized what he was doing he had slipped away on his hands and knees.
"He is certainly a brave boy," was Josie's remark, "and I hate to think of his taking all this risk on my account."
"Not so much risk for him as for us, I'm thinking," muttered the old trooper. "They are looking for mounted men—if they're looking at all—and not for crawling boys."
The old trooper was right, and ten minutes later Adrian returned to say that there was a small body of horsemen at the next turn of the road.
"Did you see anything of Don?" queried Billie.
"Not a sign."
"That's mighty funny. Where do you suppose he can be?"
"He may be hiding back in the woods, just as we are."