id you hear that?" asked Jan, clasping her brother's arm.

"Yes--I did," he answered.

"Did--did it sound like some one groaning?" she went on.

Teddy nodded his head to show that it had sounded that way to him. Just
then the noise came again.

"Oh!" exclaimed Janet, starting to run. "Maybe it's an Indian! Oh,
Teddy, come on!"

CHAPTER IX

THE SICK PONY

Teddy Martin did not run away as Jan started to leave the pile of rocks
from which the queer sound had come. Instead he stood still and looked
as hard as he could toward the hole among the stones--a hole that looked
a little like the cave on Star Island, but not so large.

"Come on, Teddy!" begged Janet. "Please come!"

"I want to see what it is," he answered.

"Maybe it's something that--that'll bite you," suggested the little
girl. "Come on!"

Just then the noise sounded again. It certainly was a groan.

"There!" exclaimed Janet. "I _know_ it's an Indian, Ted! Maybe it's one
of the kind that took Uncle Frank's ponies. Oh, please come!"

She had run on a little way from the pile of rocks, but now she stood
still, waiting for Teddy to follow.

"Come on!" she begged.

Janet did not want to go alone.

"It can't be an Indian," said Teddy, looking around but still not seeing
anything to make that strange sound.

"It could so be an Indian!" declared Janet.

"Well, maybe a sick Indian," Teddy admitted. "And if he's as sick as all
that I'm not afraid of him! I'm going to see what it is."

"Oh, The-o-dore Mar-tin!" cried Janet, much as she sometimes heard her
mother use her brother's name. "Don't you dare!"

"Why not?" asked Teddy, who tried to speak very bravely, though he
really did not feel brave. But he was not going to show that before
Janet, who was a girl. "Why can't I see what that is?"

"'Cause maybe--maybe it'll--bite you!" and as Janet said this she looked
first at the rocks and then over her shoulder, as though something might
come up behind her when she least expected it.

"Pooh! I'm not afraid!" declared Teddy. "Anyhow, if it does bite me
it's got to come out of the rocks first."

"Well, maybe it will come out."

"If it does I can see it and run!" went on the little boy.

"Would you run and leave me all alone?" asked Janet.

"Nope! Course I wouldn't do _that_," Teddy declared. "I'd run and I'd
help you run. But I don't guess anything'll bite me. Anyhow, Indians
don't bite."

"How do you know?" asked Janet. "Some Indians a