"Tom, do you think he could have fallen over some cliff and rolled to the bottom of the mountain?" questioned Sam, anxiously.
"How could he roll to the bottom with the trees so thick? He would have plenty of chance to catch hold of one of them."
"Not if he was knocked unconscious."
"Well, where can he be?"
"I don't know."
It was now raining steadily, and to protect themselves the two boys pulled their caps well down over their heads and turned up their coat collars. They came to a halt under the wide-spreading branches of a hemlock tree.
"It beats the nation, that's what it does," declared Tom. "Maybe the earth opened and swallowed him up!"
"Tom, this is no joke."
"And I'm not joking, Sam. I can't understand it at all."
"Is that the path over yonder?" continued the youngest Rover, pointing to a spot beyond the opposite side of the hemlock tree.
"It looks a little like it," was Tom's reply. "Might as well go over and make sure."
Leaving the shelter of the tree, they made their way through the bushes, which were now beginning to drip from the rain. As they progressed
