CHAPTER XVII.
INTO AND OUT OF THE CANYON.
Jack Dudley's enforced idleness had become intolerable.

He could stay no longer in the place from which Hank Hazletine had departed a half-hour before.

It was a waste of time to speculate over the intentions of the veteran, and the youth made no attempt to do so.

He had set out to see whether he could act even an insignificant part in the recovery of his loved comrade.
It has been said that the boy had the advantage over the man in that it was not to be supposed any importance would be attached to his actions.
At the same time he was liable to "put his foot in it" in more ways than one.
Somehow or other the conviction clung to Jack Dudley that the key to the situation was in the neighborhood of the canyon.

There must be hundreds of places among the mountains where a prisoner could be hidden from human eyes, but Hazletine's interest centred in that wild gorge, and Jack was certain he had gone thither.
Then there was the fact of the cowman's visit two days before, concerning which he would have said nothing but for his discovery by the boys.