eld up a warning hand.

"Verny, listen! I heard a baby crying pitifully over in those high
bushes."

"Mercy me! Do you suppose there can be any gypsies here?" cried Amy, the
timid.

"Gypsies--nothing! But how could a baby get in that jungle?" retorted
Joan.

Then they distinctly heard the plaintive wail, as of a very young child
in fear and distress. Even Mrs. Vernon turned pale at the picture that
presented itself to her thought.

"Girls, we've got to investigate this. It doesn't seem plausible that
any one would bring a kidnapped child to this wilderness to lose it, but
one can never tell!" declared Julie.

"It's a baby, that we know, so it's up to us to save it," added Ruth.

"The poor little dear!" wept Betty, the tender-hearted.

So the scouts began cutting a way through the almost impenetrable growth
that divided the trail from the place whence came the cries. But as they
went deeper in the jungle and got nearer the spot they were aiming for,
the cries ceased.

"Dear, dear! I hope the little thing isn't past aid?" murmured the
Captain, anxiously.

That urged the scouts to greater endeavor, and finally Julie broke into
a tiny clearing of about three feet across, and saw a little grey
rabbit, which had been caught in an old mesh-wire trap set by some one
long before and forgotten.

"Oh, you poor little creature!" cried Julie, falling upon her knees to
rescue the soft little thing.

"Is it alive, Jule?" asked a chorus of anxious voices.

"Yes, but it is awfully afraid of me. I can't do anything for it."

"Maybe it will bite you--do be careful, Jule!" called Amy, deliciously
thrilled at this fearful risk her friend was taking.

"Bite!" scorned Julie. "It's starved, and too weak to even nibble."

"Wait, Julie! Let me throw my hat over it so it won't see what we are
doing. Then it won't feel so frightened. Remember the 'Boulder' we all
saw, and when it moved we had a panic? Well, our sense of sight was all
that caused that fear. It is the same now--what the rabbit doesn't see
it won't fear," explained Mrs. Vernon.

While it was hidden under the broad-brimmed scout hat, the rabbit was
not aware of the willing rescuers, and soon Julie had the snare open,
and Mrs. Vernon held the little creature in her hat.

"Shall we let it go now?" asked some of the girls.

"It may have an injured leg where the trap caught it. I think we will
carry it home and feed it well, and then if it is all right, it can run