"I will," answered the boy, though far from relishing the task assigned to him.
"You have your rifle. Signal us by shooting into the air if anything happens. But be careful. Don't get the 'buck fever' and let go at us, or at Tad, if he should return before we get back."
"I'll be careful," answered the boy. "Please don't worry about me. Any danger of that cougar jumping down on me here?" he asked, glancing apprehensively at the rocks overhead.
"I think not. He's gone. We shall be more likely to see him than you will. It's the ponies the brute's after. And he may have gotten one of them before this," added the guide.
Ned pluckily took his station just outside the circle of light formed by the replenished fire, and sat down with rifle laid across his knees.
The guide, with Walter Perkins and Stacy Brown, set off at a trot in search of the stampeded ponies. At Lige's direction they spread out so as to cover as much ground as possible, the torches making it well nigh impossible for any of them to get lost.
"Call your ponies," advised the guide. "We may be able to pick up some of them in that way after they have spent themselves."
Yet, though the forest rang with their calls, no trace were they able to find of the missing animals.
"No use," announced Lige finally. "We shall only get lost ourselves. It will be better to return to camp and wait for daylight. If the cougar is going to eat any of them, he probably has them by this time. However, I think my shooting has frightened him off, and that he is several miles from here by now. That was my main object in wasting so much ammunition on the beast."
"Yes, but what are we going to do about Tad?" insisted Walter.