“They’re gone, sir, but I’m sure there were two men there.”
“Then if so, they must be close to the same spot now. I hope you are wrong, but of course you may be right. Let’s go on, and if they are there, we shall be sure to catch sight of them, for they must go forward or backward.”
“Would you go on?” said Cyril dubiously.
“At any cost, boy. We cannot go back to that awful chasm to pass another night. There, back with you, but keep your eyes on the position in which you saw the men.”
Cyril was silenced, and half ready to suppose that in his anxiety he had deceived himself; and in a few minutes he was back with the colonel, beside Perry and the mules, but without seeing anything in the direction he had pointed out.
“Ready?”
“Yes, sir, but my eyes are not quite so good as they were, sir, and I fancied I saw some one creeping along the side of the rock, up yonder to the right.”
“Left, John Manning,” cried Cyril, “and I saw it too.”
“You saw something on your left, sir? Then I am right, and my eyes are true. There’s Injuns watching us, sir, and if we don’t look out, we shall have arrows sticking in our skins.”