CHAPTER XIV.
MISSING.
The minute quickly arrived when Jack Dudley could no longer doubt that a great misfortune had befallen his comrade, Fred Greenwood.
In the anguish of anxiety Jack's imagination pictured many mishaps that might account for the disappearance.

He must have heard the report of the elder's Winchester, and, since Fred's attention was centred upon the herd of antelope, he could not fail to know that his friend had secured one of them for their evening meal.

The only thing to prevent his hastening to join Jack must have been his inability to do so.

There was the remote possibility that his accident had been of a nature that involved no one else--such, for instance, as sudden illness, though Jack had never known anything like that to overtake his friend.
All that the youth could do was to attempt to follow the route that Fred had taken when he set out to place himself on the other side of the game.

It was guesswork to trace his footsteps, but the elder youth made the effort.