wild-goose chase

I am simply afraid that this may be a wild-goose chase.

I still wasn't convinced this was anything other than a wild-goose chase.

He's on a wild-goose chase after them in some country over beyond the hills.

It would have been nice, though, to know we weren't on a wild-goose chase.

Or was she merely leading me on a wild-goose chase?

It was all a wild-goose chase, as he had feared from the beginning.

Very likely I've come down here on a wild-goose chase.

No, you couldn't waste Watch resources on a wild-goose chase like that.

Some of them, though, I'm sure, must have considered themselves upon a wild-goose chase.

"Then why go on some wild-goose chase after her - or him, as the case may be?"