Pete told me not to do
it, but of course I knew better than he did and nothing would do but I
must try it. It's lucky I'm here, let me tell you."
"Did you find your way back to the place where Pete left you?"
"I did not. He found me. Now then, what happened to you? We didn't know
but that you might have fallen over some rim or been bitten by a
rattlesnake or swallowed by a mountain lion. The first thing we knew was
when Kitoni came along and told us."
"Did you go back to the place where you were when I left you?"
"What do you think we'd do? Of course we went back. We didn't know but by
some kind of fool-luck you might have gone back there and if we weren't on
hand we knew you wouldn't know the place and most likely would go on past
it and then be lost on the other side. You see we were in a tight box."
"I'm sorry," said Fred ruefully. "All I can say is that from this time on
I'm going to stick so close to the crowd that nobody can lose me."
"You'd better!" said John threateningly. "I thought I was done for, when I
got lost too. I thought of Fremont and Kit Carson and the Forty-niners and
all the old chaps that came out over the Santa Fe trail.
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