Page:Taylor - In the Dwellings of the Wilderness.djvu/128

 down and injured himself. Perhaps a tunnel caved in on him somewhere."

The shock of this announcement turned Deane cold. Uppermost in his mind was the thought—"Two gone! what if the boy should be the third?"

"Oh, he—he's around here somewhere," he said, and strove to speak lightly. Merritt pushed his hat on the back of his head with a gesture full of worry and bewilderment.

"I hope so!" he said slowly. "Of course, it must be so. But… there are Tarfa and Hafiz, you know!"

"Perhaps he came back, and went away so early that we did not see him," Deane suggested. At heart he knew this to be futile. Merritt shook his head.

"No, I asked Hamd, his boy." He