Part 23 (2/2)
”No, sir,” responded Rand; ”he went over to Highpoint this hpoint, but he hasn't been there and he hasn't come back We are afraid he is lost”
”Lost!” exclaimed the colonel ”How could that be”
”We don't know,” answered Jack; ”but we have hunted all over for him, and he isn't anywhere about”
”All over?” said the colonel ”He couldn't very well be all over at once, could he? But, co, and ill see if we can't find hio?”
”On the upper road,” answered Rand; ”but we have been all along that”
”Well, we'll see if we can't pick up his trail,” went on the colonel at once, leading off at a rapid pace ”Did any of you pick it up?”
”There are lots of tracks,” replied Rand, ”but I did not pick his out”
”Some who are expert, you know, can read tracks as readily as you read the paper These look e or break away fro the road the colonel indicated one he thought ht be Pepper's track, which the boys folloith some success, after it had been pointed out until, all at once, the marks indicated that the person had come to a sudden stop and had turned aside
”He left the road here for some reason,” decided the colonel, ”or the one who h here, you can see how these bushes have been thrust aside”
”I do now,” replied Rand, ”but I wouldn't have noticed itwith hih the woods
”No,” answered Rand
”Probably the dog ca to get away fro They were both in a hurry It stops here; he must have taken to a tree”
”Pepper!” he shouted, ”where are you?”
But neither his calls nor those of the boys brought any response
”He isn't here,” went on the colonel; ”but there has been a disturbance of so's tracks all around as if the ani, but no footprints There is the track of a snake, too”
”A snake!” cried Jack, in alarm ”Do you think it could have bitten him?”
”No,” said the colonel, ”if he had been bitten ould still have his trail He seems to have vanished into the air”
”I don't see how he could do that,” declared Don
”Neither do I,” replied the colonel ”Spread out around the tree and see if you can find where he cah search failed to reveal, to the investigators, any trace
”I never saw anything like this,” declared the colonel ”He seems to have disappeared coone?” asked Jack, anxious for the safety of his brother