The prospect of getting something to eat overshadowed all other questions, and after several attempts to consider the matter fairly, Fred came to the conclusion that he would make the attempt.

To do this it was necessary to go back over the same path he had followed, and to return to the very spot where he had been ready to break his neck, if it would assist him in escaping, but a short time before.  But he reasoned that he had the darkness in his favor, that the Indians were not likely to stay in the same place, and that none of them would be looking for his return.  This, together with the prospect of securing something to satisfy his hunger, easily decided the question.  Within five minutes from the time the thought had entered his head he was carefully picking his way down the mountain-side toward the ravine.

Fred did not forget the precaution necessary in a movement of this kind.  He moved as silently as he could, pausing at intervals to look and listen; but the way remained clear, and nothing occurred to excite alarm until he had descended into the gorge itself.

At this precise juncture, he was startled by the sharp crack of a rifle, which seemed to come from a point two or three hundred yards away, directly behind him.

In his terror, his first fear was that the shot had been aimed at him, and he started to retrace his steps—­but before he went any distance, he reflected that that could not be and he stood motionless for a few minutes, waiting to see what would follow.  All remained as quiet as before, and, after a time, he resumed his cautious movement along the ravine, keeping close to the side, and advancing on tip-toe, like a thief in the night.

The further he got along, the more convinced did he become that he was venturing upon a fool-hardy undertaking; but when he hesitated, his hunger seemed to intensify and speedily impelled him forward again.  At the end of a half hour or so, he reached a point in the gorge which he judged to be at the foot of where the camp-fire was, and he began the more difficult and dangerous task of approaching that.

As upon the night before, there was a moon in the sky, but there were also clouds, and the intervening rocks and stunted vegetation made the light treacherous and uncertain.  Shadows appeared here and there, which looked like phantoms flitting back and forth, and which caused many a start and stop upon the part of the young scout.

“I wonder where they have gone?” he said to himself fully a score of times, as he picked his way over the broken land.  “Those two Apaches must have come back by this time, and I hope they knocked the other one in the head for letting me get away.  They must have been looking for me, but I don’t think they will hunt in this place.”