"I wonder where he can be," Matthew said wearily; "this business of waiting doesn't strike me as a very opportune thing just now. If I had my way, I would be running like a rabbit, until we were back at Boston. And never will I leave that place again! We did wrong in not obeying our parents." Agnes looked at him reprovingly. "That does not solve our problems now," she ventured. "I, too, wish we were back, but we are here now, and we must make the best of it. But oh, if only Fred were here." "Let's go and look for him," Matthew broke in. "No," Agnes replied, "we must stay and wait. They also serve who only stand and wait." Yet she also became tired as the moments crept on slowly and wearily. Darkness covered the cave, and she could hardly see the opening any more. "Matthew," she whispered as she walked forward, "you remain here with the guns. I will go and look for Fred. It is dark now!" In a moment she was gone, while Matthew almost wept for anguish of heart. Yet he had learned to obey both Fred and Agnes, though he was older than they. There was something indescribably firm in their voices and conduct which he never could understand, and often he himself wondered what made him stand in awe of them. Just now he bitterly reproved himself for not having followed Agnes. "She is a girl and you are a boy," he scolded himself; "but she is a heroine, and you are a coward. How could you let her go alone!" He waited impatiently, but neither Agnes nor Fred returned. Overcome with fear, he knelt down in prayer, for he was a very pious boy. "Good Lord," he prayed, "help Fred and Agnes and me, and let us not perish in this wilderness. Show us a way to escape out of this trouble that we may praise Thy glorious name. Help us for Jesus' sake." Then as the dreary hours passed slowly and monotonously, his strength gave way, and he soon was fast asleep. CHAPTER X CAPTURE AND ESCAPE How long Matthew slept, he could not tell, but suddenly he was awake, and some one was holding his hand over his mouth. In the darkness the form seemed large and grotesque, and his first impulse was to cast aside the hand and to cry out. But then he heard a soft voice spoken almost in a whisper, and he recognized Fred. "Matthew," Fred whispered, "come to yourself; awake, and sit up. I have something to tell you. Where is Agnes?" "She went away to look for you," Matthew replied; "she left a long, long time ago." Fred could not suppress a painful cry. "And she didn't come back?" he asked excitedly. "No," Matthew muttered. "Then she, too, was captured," Fred explained sorrowfully, "and she is in the hands of the Indians." "Oh! Oh!" Matthew cried bursting into tears. "What have I done?"