But the youngsters paid no attention to him. Hastily catching up their rifles, they mounted their horses without stopping to put on the saddles or bridles, and followed after Archie, who, giving Uncle Dick’s horse his own way, was carried at a rapid gallop towards the grove. The animal, which seemed to know just what Archie wanted to do, skirted the woods for a few hundred yards, neighing at intervals, and finally succeeded in bringing a faint response from among the trees. Then he turned and was about to plunge into the forest, but his rider checked him. Archie would not have gone in there for a dozen horses. The undergrowth was all thorn-bushes, which stood so closely together that it was only with the greatest difficulty that one could make his way among them in daylight without being terribly scratched and torn. In the dark it would have been almost as much as his life was worth to attempt to force a passage through them.
“We must give him up until morning, if he doesn’t find his way out before,” said Eugene.
“Then he’ll never come out,” returned Archie, dolefully. “Something will make a meal of him before daylight. Good-by horse!”
“What do you suppose makes him stay in there anyhow? That’s what I can’t understand,” said Frank. “If he went in there of his own free will he ought to be able to find his way out.”
“Are there any natives about here who would be likely to dig pitfalls for game in these woods?” asked George.
“Listen!” cried Eugene, suddenly. “That neigh certainly sounded louder and plainer than the others. Yes, sir, he’s coming.”
Archie thought this news was too good to be true. He held his breath and listened until the next shrill neigh was uttered, and then told himself there was no mistake about it. Presently the boys could hear the horse forcing his way through the bushes, and in ten minutes more he came out into the open ground, and galloping forward to greet his companion, rubbed noses with him, and said as plainly as a horse could say, that he was overjoyed to see him once more.
When the boys reached the camp Mack was the first to greet them. Indeed, he was so anxious to know whether or not the horse had been found, that when he heard them coming he ran out and met them a hundred yards from the wagon. “It’s all right,” said Archie, gleefully.
“You haven’t brought him back?” exclaimed the driver, in tones of astonishment.
“Yes, we have.”