here, and it was a great pity that I had the accident just at the moment I
was about to learn all about it."

He moved carefully about the cave, and soon found that he had reached the
furtherest limit. Less than twenty feet away it terminated, the jagged
walls shutting down, and offering an impassable barrier to any further
progress in that direction.

All that he could do, after completing his search, was to turn back in
quest of his friend Mickey. The belief that he was in the immediate
neighborhood of the outlet delayed the lad's return until he could assure
himself that it was impossible to find that for which he was hunting, and
which had been the means of his wandering so far away from camp.

Fred occupied fully an hour in the search. Here and there he observed
scratches upon the surface of the rocks in some places. He was confident
that they had been made by the feet of the wolves; but in spite of these
encouraging signs, he was baffled in his main purpose, and how the visitor
made his way in and out of the cave remained an impenetrable mystery.

"Too bad, too bad!" he muttered, with a great sigh. "I shall have to give
it up, after all. I only wish Mickey was here to help me. I will call to
him, so that he will be sure to hear."

As has been intimated in another place, the two friends had a code of
signals understood by both. When they were separated by quite a distance,
and one wished to draw the other to him, he had a way of placing two of
his fingers against his tongue, and emitting a shrill screech which might
well be taken for the scream of a locomotive whistle, so loud and piercing
was its character.