"Do you suppose there's any chance that Royce got away in the confusion?" Sue asked.
"He might have," Bob replied, but in his heart he doubted it greatly. He had heard Hains when he told the men to guard him and he knew that they feared him.
They had been there about half an hour, at times whispering and again dozing for a few minutes, when Sue's quick ears caught a sound which escaped the boys.
"Someone or something is coming this way," she whispered.
"I didn't hear anything," Bob said as he drew the revolver from his pocket resolved to take no chances.
"Listen a minute and you will," Sue told him.
"I hear it," Jack declared just then.
"I'll bet it's Hains," Bob said as he got to his feet. "Let's keep perfectly still and maybe he'll go by without spotting us."
It was soon evident that the man or animal was coming directly toward them and soon Bob changed his opinion as to its identity. Hains would never make so much noise in passing through the woods, even if he was hunting no one. This must be either a stray steer or a man unused to the forest, for he was making, as Jack whispered, more noise than a train of cars.
Bob knew that he was only a few feet away when he flashed the light, which Hains had dropped, and at the same time ordered whoever it was to stop.