"There is the place," said Manley, at length; "but I see no smoke, and had they remained they would certainly have kept up a fire."
We rode forward eagerly; but our fears were realized. The ashes of the fire at the camp were there, but the fire itself had long been extinguished.
Clarice and Rachel must have left the spot some time before!
We searched about in every direction, but could find no traces of their having been there lately, and our eyes were not sufficiently sharp to distinguish the signs which would have enabled an Indian to say in what direction they had gone. We next looked out for their horses, but they were nowhere within sight.
Some time was thus spent, and the day was drawing to a close. Should we not find them before nightfall, we must wait until the next morning. To have to do this was trying in the extreme, but we had to submit, as it was so dark that we could with difficulty see our way as we returned to the deserted camp. My poor friend Manley was dreadfully out of spirits, but I assured him that he had no reason to blame himself. He had acted for the best, and no man could do more.
The next morning we resumed our search; but without success. We were both of us in despair.
"They must have taken their horses and ridden off towards the mountains; it is useless searching for them here any longer," I said.
Manley agreed with me, and, believing that they must have gone on to the camp by a different route from the one we had taken, he was eager to return.
He and his men had pushed ahead through the forest while I stopped to tighten the girths of my saddle; and when I rode forward, expecting immediately to overtake them, I found that I had followed a different direction from that which they had taken.
It is no easy matter, in a thick forest, to regain the right path, or to get up with those who have once been lost sight of. I found it to be so in the present instance. I was sure that I could not be going very far wrong, and expected as soon as I reached the edge of the forest to see my friends, although they might have got some little way ahead on the open ground.