give up the attempt. Sinking down by the trunk of the tree and
leaning her head against it she tried to think of a way out of her
difficulty.

The fort, which she could plainly see, seemed a long distance off,
although it was only a little way down the grassy slope. She looked
and looked, but not a person was to be seen. She called to Tige. She
remembered that he had been chasing a squirrel a short while ago,
but now there was no sign of him. He did not come at her call. How
annoying! If Tige were only there she could have sent him for help.
She shouted several times, but the distance was too great for her
voice to carry to the fort. The mocking echo of her call came back
from the bluff that rose to her left. Betty now began to be alarmed
in earnest, and the tears started to roll down her cheeks. The
throbbing pain in her ankle, the dread of having to remain out in
that lonesome forest after dark, and the fear that she might not be
found for hours, caused Betty's usually brave spirit to falter; she
was weeping unreservedly.

In reality she had been there only a few minutes--although they
seemed hours to her--when she heard the light tread of moccasined
feet on the moss behind her. Starting up with a cry of joy she
turned and looked up into the astonished face of Alfred Clarke.

Returning from a hunt back in the woods he had walked up to her
before being aware of her presence. In a single glance he saw the
wildflowers scattered beside her, the little moccasin turned inside
out, the woebegone, tearstained face, and he knew Betty had come to
grief.

Confused and vexed, Betty sank back at the foot of the tree. It is
probable she would have encountered Girty or a member of his band of
redmen, rather than have this young man find her in this
predicament. It provoked her to think that of all the people at the
fort it should be the only one she could not welcome who should find
her in such a sad plight.

"Why, Miss Zane!" he exclaimed, after a moment of hesitation. "What
in the world has happened? Have you been hurt? May I help you?"

"It is nothing," said Betty, bravely, as she gathered up her flowers
and the moccasin and rose slowly to her feet. "Thank you, but you
need not wait."

The cold words nettled Alfred and he was in the act of turning away
from her when he caught, for the fleetest part of a second, the full
gaze of her eyes. He stopped short. A closer scrutiny of her face
convinced him that she was sufferi