"There's no need of all three of us going," said Jack; "Frank and I will be sufficient, and you"—addressing Harry—"had better stay here and watch camp."
"I was just going to propose the same thing," said Harry—"that Frank and I would go and help the ladies out of their trouble, if they can be found. There are only two of them, and two of us ought to be quite sufficient for recovering them, if they are in a predicament such as they were in the other day."
They argued the point with a good deal of vehemence, each insisting that the other should remain at camp, and that I should accompany the one of them who went to the rescue. It was plain as day, the whole situation: they were jealous of each other, but not of me!
Finally, just as we were concluding breakfast, the subject was referred to me for arbitration, and I was placed in an awkward predicament. I got out of it, though, by suggesting that I would be the one to remain at camp, and that Harry and Jack should start at once on the expedition.
"I agree with you," I said, "that two are sufficient for the purpose; and as I know you would prefer the expedition to loitering about the camp all day, and perhaps longer, you had better go."
The result of my turning the tables on them in this manner was that they both agreed that I ought to accompany them, which I did; and in a very few minutes after breakfast we were off across-country to the camp of the ladies. There we learned that they had started away about the middle of the forenoon in a southwesterly direction, accompanied by the fore-looper, who carried their rifles and extra ammunition. They told the manager that they would take a turn off to the southwest, and expected to be back by nightfall. They had not returned; neither had the fore-looper, nor any of the horses.
"They have their horses with them," I remarked, "and therefore cannot be in such a terrible predicament as they were the other day. On the other hand, having their horses and the fore-looper, it would appear that something serious has happened, since none of them have come in."
"Yes," said Jack, "it's no trivial matter, whatever it is. Perhaps they've been captured by a band of hostile natives; didn't you say there was one living in that direction?"
"Yes," I answered, with a good deal of alarm in my voice; "there's a petty chief, or king, as he calls himself, off in that direction, who is not at all friendly to white men. If they go into his country to hunt he either orders them out at once, or makes them pay very dearly for the privilege. I don't think his boundaries are within twenty-five or thirty miles of here, but there's no telling how far the ladies would ride; and, on the other hand, the king may have sent out a marauding-expedition that took them in."
"In case we find them—" said Jack, and then he paused.