It had been nearly two hours since they started up the hill and during that time they had neither seen or heard a thing of their friends. From time to time they had seen signs which led them to believe they were still on the right trail and to encourage them to keep on.
"Wonder where the boys are," Bob said as they paused a moment to get their breath.
"Goodness knows. They can't be very near us or we'd heard them. I imagine they kept going straight up while we've been bearing to the right ever since we got on to the trail.
"Then likely they're miles off to our left."
"More than likely."
"But we can't very well get lost. All we've got to do is to go down hill and we're bound to come out somewhere."
"But we're going to keep on till we strike something."
"You bet."
But when another hour had passed and they were still mounting they were about tired out and Jack declared that he'd have to rest. So they threw themselves on the ground where was a thick bed of moss and relaxed their tired limbs.
"One thing's dead sure," Jack declared after they had somewhat recovered their breath.