He had secured the rifle, and yet he had left without one thought of the indispensable ammunition that was required to make the weapon of any use.

He did not know whether the gun in his hand was loaded or not, in which latter case it was of no more account than a piece of wood.
"Well, if that don't beat everything," he muttered, at a loss to understand how he could have committed such an oversight.

"I never once thought of it till this minute, and now it's too late!" The reflection of his great need inclined him to return to the camp-fire and incur the risk involved in the effort to repair the blunder that he had committed.
"_That_ Indian cannot hurt me, and I don't suppose that any of the others have come back.

It won't take me long to get what I want; and I will do it, too." He was but a short distance from the place, and, having decided upon the proper course, he moved rapidly back upon the path he had just trod, and in a few minutes was beside the rock, which was becoming familiar in a certain sense.

Mindful of the danger to which one was always exposed in that section, Fred peered around the rock with the same silence and caution as before.