“No, no! no, no!” whispered Tom excitedly.

“Why not? Are you afraid?”

“No, not a bit; but I don’t want to go. I’m tired and hungry. I don’t believe you want to go either.”

“Yes, I do,” said Dick eagerly. “I feel as if I wanted to go, but my body didn’t.”

“Ha, ha, ha!” laughed Tom, but very softly, as he kept his eyes fixed on the distant light. “That’s a nice way of backing out of it. Why, you’re as much afraid as I am, only I’m honest and you’re not.”

“Yes, I am,” whispered Dick. “I’m as honest as you are, and I’ll show you that I am. There, I should feel afraid to go by myself.”

“Will you go if I go with you?”

Before Dick could answer there was a long, low, piteous cry from the other direction, that from whence they had heard the shot.

“I say, what’s that?” whispered Tom in an awe-stricken tone.

“I don’t know. It sounds very queer. There it is again.”