“You are sure he is not merely hunting in another part of the island.”
“Certain,” was the dispiriting reply, “you see it happened like this—we had shot a couple of turkeys when Ben suggested our separating and getting a bigger bag in that way than we would by hunting together. We were to rejoin each other at the end of half an hour, the signal being two shots. At the end of half an hour I fired two shots but there was no answer. I tried again, and there was still no reply but the echo of my shots. I was scared then, I tell you, and fired the danger signal. Still there was no answer.
“Well, then, I was rattled. I plunged about in the woods till I got all ripped up as you see and shouted for Ben till I thought my throat would crack, but I didn’t get a trace or a sign of him. Then I recovered my wits a bit and got out my compass. I headed for camp, and when I judged I was near enough for you to hear me, I fired the danger signal—you answered it, and here I am.”
“Oh, Billy, what are we going to do?” exclaimed the younger boy.
“Make the best of it till we are certain Ben is lost, and then communicate with the Tarantula and Frank and Harry,” said the practical Billy. “Cheer up, we don’t know yet that any actual harm has befallen him, it’s the mystery of the thing that worries me.”
“I must send a wireless to Frank and Harry at once,” cried Lathrop.
“You will do no such thing, young fellow,” rejoined Billy. “In the first place they have got troubles enough of their own right now; and, in the second, a man is never lost till you’ve sent out a general alarm for him, and he is still missing.”
“A general alarm?” repeated Lathrop, puzzled.
“Yes, that’s reporter’s slang for advertising for a missing man. Well, we can’t advertise here unless the herons and mocassins get out a gazette, but we can take the canoes to-morrow and make a thorough circuit of the island.”
Greatly comforted by Billy’s assumed light-heartedness, Lathrop tramped back to camp by his side in a more cheerful frame of mind. As a matter of fact, Billy was feeling what he himself would have described as “pretty blue,” but he was sensible enough to know that the best way to face the emergencies of life is to look at them from the best possible aspect and not give up hope till every way out of difficulty has been tried.