Ned started on a trot immediately after having heard the shot.

"I've got him this time!" exulted Rector. "I've got a chance to show
the fellows what sort of a trailer I am. They don't think I'm any
good, except Tad, and he knows better."

Tad, as he skulked along, was wondering if Ned had heard the shot and
hoping that his companion would make no false moves. Each boy was
determined to round up the man who had winged Stacy Brown and narrowly
missed killing the others of the party.

Night was coming on rapidly and it behooved the lads to make haste.
In the first place they did not know these hills, and, in the second,
the professor would become alarmed and come in search of them were
their return delayed too long. This was not desirable. It might mean
the undoing of the entire party unless Tad and Ned succeeded in
rounding up their enemy first.

Ned, in his excitement, had a mishap. While creeping along the upper
rim of a galley he stepped on a round stone. Ned fell crashing into
a heap of rotting limbs and went floundering from there to the bottom
of the incline, making a racket that must have been heard clear out on
the plain.

The lad got up, his clothing torn, his face scratched, very much
chagrined over his blundering fall.

"I guess I'm not so much of a scout as I thought I was," he muttered.
"Chunky could have done no worse and for a blundering idiot he's
always held the cup up to the present time. I'm glad no one saw me