Quickly informing the boys of the plot against their companion, he told them that no time must be lost in finding Chap and keeping him with them.
No one had observed which way he had gone, but from his habits and his love of the water, it was probable that he had strolled either up or down the shore of the lake.
“You run along that way,” said Adam, “and mind you keep together, for if them chaps get hold of one of you alone, they may make it bad for him. I’ll go down-shore. I ain’t afraid of ’em.”
And with this, the party separated.
On their different ways through the town they met several persons, but nobody had seen Chap.
Adam soon found himself in the woods, where there were open spaces among the trees near the water, which allowed him to hurry along quite rapidly and to see to a considerable distance. He was certain he was on the right track, for in the sand near the water he saw the print of shoes, with a peculiar crack across the sole of one of them, which he had often noticed when Chap was stretched at full length on board The Rolling Stone.
“Now we’ll give it to him.”
Greatly encouraged by this, he followed the track, and just as he vaulted over the trunk of a fallen palmetto, he caught sight of Chap some distance head. He was crouched down, examining something at the water’s edge.
Adam was just about to call to him, when he was suddenly enveloped in darkness. Something had fallen over his head, which blinded and almost choked him.