All remained as quiet as before, and, after a time, he resumed his cautious movement along the ravine, keeping close to the side, and advancing on tip-toe, like a thief in the night.
The further he got along, the more convinced did he become that he was venturing upon a fool-hardy undertaking; but when he hesitated, his hunger seemed to intensify and speedily impelled him forward again.

At the end of a half hour or so, he reached a point in the gorge which he judged to be at the foot of where the camp-fire was, and he began the more difficult and dangerous task of approaching that.
As upon the night before, there was a moon in the sky, but there were also clouds, and the intervening rocks and stunted vegetation made the light treacherous and uncertain.

Shadows appeared here and there, which looked like phantoms flitting back and forth, and which caused many a start and stop upon the part of the young scout.
"I wonder where they have gone ?" he said to himself fully a score of times, as he picked his way over the broken land.

"Those two Apaches must have come back by this time, and I hope they knocked the other one in the head for letting me get away.

They must have been looking for me, but I don't think they will hunt in _this_ place." Fred had made his way but a short distance up the side of the mountain, when he became assured that he was upon the right track.