eds
hiding in the woods? I shall make it my business to find out. There,
they are coming out."

She threw herself on the ground. She could hear the men approaching.
They seemed, from the sound of their voices, to be coming directly
toward her. Harriet gathered herself ready for a spring in case of
discovery, which now seemed imminent, then again flattened herself on
the ground.

"I won't run until I have to," she decided. Courage was required for a
girl to remain in Harriet's position under the circumstances, but
Harriet Burrell had plenty of this and to spare. In the meantime the
men were rapidly drawing near. They were conversing in low tones, but
the girl in hiding on the ground was unable to make out what they were
saying. Rather was her attention centered on what they were going to
do, which was the all-important question at that moment. But Harriet
was not left long in suspense. The men were coming straight toward
her. She could see them quite plainly now, and wondered why they did
not see her. It was evident that they had not yet done so, perhaps
because they were so fully occupied with their own affairs.

Harriet Burrell braced herself. To rise would mean instant discovery;
to remain as she was, possible avoidance of it. She decided upon the
latter course and lay still. Within a minute the expected occurred.
The men had swerved to their right slightly, raising the hope in the
mind of Harriet that they were going to pass her without discovering
her. Instead a heavy boot came in contact with her own feet. There
followed a muttered exclamation, the man pitched headlong, the girl
having stiffened her limbs to meet the shock the instant she felt the
touch of the boot against her feet.

The man's companion laughed uproariously and was called sharply to
account by the one who had fallen.

Now came the supreme test for Harriet. She could scarcely restrain
herself from crying out, springing up and running away. Instead, she
lay perfectly quiet, breathing as lightly as possible. The man got up
growling.

"Confound these dark holes," he snarled.

"Hurt yourself?" questioned his companion.

"No, only skinned my wrist. Let's get back to the boat. Why doesn't
the Cap'n do it himself instead of asking us to take all the risks and
all the knocks to boot?"

"Because he is paying us for doing it. I reckon you'd better do as
you're told if you want to come in for the clean-up. We'd better be
hustling, too, for Cap'n w