Frank searched high and low as the minutes passed, but without any success. He saw the coming of night with uneasiness.
"This is a nice pickle for me. Trying to warn the others, and I fall into the pit myself the first one. But they wouldn't dare hurt Jerry. We haven't done them any harm. What they really want, I imagine, consists of our guns and food. Then they could hold out for a long campaign in the woods, and snap their fingers at the sheriff and his posse. Like as not, in the morning they'll try to open communications with us and offer Jerry in exchange for our things."
The thought gave him pain. Never before had he known just how much he thought of the missing boy.
Then he remembered that he had two other chums.
"They'll be worried too. Perhaps I'd better be getting back to camp to relieve their distress of mind. It will be all right in the morning, no doubt. And there's always a chance that Jerry may be able to give the rascals the slip. He can duck first-class when he wants to, whether it's playing hockey or prisoner's base."
Getting what small consolation he could out of this, Frank now set about heading for the camp. He had ventured far into the interior of the island, and only for the fact that the stars were shining brightly above, he might have further mixed matters up by getting thoroughly lost himself.
There were times when he found it all he could do to push his way through the dense vegetation which obstructed his passage on every side.
But having taken his bearings, he knew he was slowly but surely drawing nearer the point where their camp lay. The bluff stood up against the star-bedecked sky at such times as he found a clear spot and could catch a view.
Frank happened to have an unusually large supply of matches with him. He always carried some when in the woods, but that morning he had taken up quite a bunch from the receptacle Jerry had made to hold them near the entrance to their tent.
Consequently he was able to strike one every little while when some peculiarly knotty problem presented itself for solution.
It was while standing in a little glade that he ignited one of the matches in order to glance at his watch, more than anything else. His attention was immediately attracted toward something on the ground.