They wildly called "Ned! Ned! Ned Brown!" but there was no answer. They groped back for him in the darkness, lighted only by the uncertain flashes, which were growing less and less frequent; but the tent had been swept away, and their fire wholly extinguished, so they had nothing to guide them to the exact spot of their former encampment. For hours they searched in vain. Drenched and chilled, weary and bruised, at length, as day dawned, they found themselves in a dense forest, with no path and no guide.
"What shall we do?" said Arthur. "Why did we come? I will never do what I know to be wrong again."
"'No use to cry for spilled milk,'" said Dick, trying to speak cheerfully, while his face contradicted his words.
"Let us get out of these woods and down this mountain if we possibly can," said Arthur. "Then, if we don't find Ned, we can send some one up for him who knows something about the way."
"All right," said Phil. "It don't look as if we should have anything to eat till we do get down, and I'm 'most starved. Hark! What's that noise? I do believe that's a bear's growl. He is coming nearer, surely."
"Pshaw! nonsense! it isn't a bear; it's only the rustling of the leaves," said Dick.
But every little while some noise would cause them to fear that some wild animal was on their track.
Several times they were stopped by a precipice so steep that no human foot could descend it, and were obliged to retrace their course and seek another less difficult way.
Just at dusk they reached a farm-house, where, as it was on the opposite side of the mountain from their boarding place, they were obliged to spend the night.
Oh, what a night it was! The heavy supper after the long fast made them ill, and every limb was aching with pain and fatigue. Then the terrible anxiety about Ned! What might he not be suffering alone on the mountain, and what report could they give to his mother when they made their way back to the boarding-house? Surely three boys were never more severely punished for disobedience. Never again would Dick sing,