It was on one of these breathing halts that Sandy, happening to send a glance back along the hidden path they had come over, gave a low cry, and gripped the arm of his brother convulsively, as he exclaimed in a whisper:
"We are followed, Bob! I surely saw the figure of an Indian flitting from tree to tree, back there! Drop the torch and fall flat, before an arrow comes!"
CHAPTER XVI
THE BARK OF THE RED FOX
Quick to act in the presence of danger, Bob instantly dashed the blazing torch to the ground, and set his foot upon it. Then, in company with his brother, he dropped flat to the earth, as they had been taught to do by the Irish trapper.
They half expected to hear the hiss of a feathered shaft as it whizzed through the air over them, and each boy gripped his musket nervously, as he crouched there among the bushes, waiting for he hardly knew what.
"Do you hear them coming?" whispered Sandy.
"No," replied the other; "but we must not stay here. They will try to surround us, and cut us off from flight."
"But if we leave here we must lose the trail," objected Sandy.