“I don’t believe so,” spoke Chot. “I been around here all morning and there wasn’t any shooting.”
“Might have been a silencer on the gun.”
“Sure—but—”
Chot clapped a hand to his left side, a look of pain came over his face and he stopped running.
“What’s the matter?” asked Rick, pausing.
“Got a fierce pain in my side. I got to turn over a stone. Go on, I’ll catch up to you.”
“I got a pain, too. We’ll each turn over a stone.”
The boys bent down very low and slowly turned over the nearest stones they could reach. Then they gradually straightened up again.
“Mine’s gone,” remarked Chot.
“So’s mine,” said his chum. “Funny, ain’t it, how that makes a pain go away.”