But, though they spread out and searched, there was no sign of either the negro or the little brown man.
"I can't understand what has happened," quivered Tom Reade, thinking more of the staunch little Mexican than of the loss of the prisoner.
CHAPTER XVI
A TEST OF REAL NERVE
"What an idiot I was not to stop to consider that Sambo Ebony could snap those cords!" groaned Tom, staring disconcertedly about him. "Yet, if Nicolas were safe I wouldn't so much mind the escape of the black. I shall see him again, and I shall know him wherever I see him."
"Let's look for the trail," proposed Foreman Corbett, holding one of the lanterns close to the ground.
The trail, however, was easy neither to distinguish nor to follow.
"We may as well leave here and search farther," concluded the young engineer. "Before we go, though, we'll get the magneto and take it with us."
Then the procession turned toward the land end of the retaining wall.
"If Nicolas doesn't show up soon," Tom murmured to the foreman, "I shall notify the Blixton police and offer a reward for news of him. That little fellow is too faithful to be left to his fate."