.

She had no fear of there being any savage creature in this wood. At least
there could be nothing here that would attack her in broad daylight. In a
lull in the echoing thunder she cried aloud:

"Hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo! Where are you?"

She was sure her voice drove some distance up the hillside against the
wind. She saw the flitting figure again, and with a desire to make sure of
its identity, Ruth started in pursuit.

Had Tom been present the girl of the Red Mill would have called his
attention to the mystery and left it to him to decide whether to
investigate or not. But Ruth was quite an independent person when she was
alone; and under the circumstances, with Henri Marchand so busy comforting
Jennie, Ruth did not consider for a moment calling the Frenchman to advise
with her.

As for Helen and Aunt Kate, they were quite overcome by their fears. Ruth
was not really afraid of thunder and lightning, as many people are. She
had long since learned that "thunder does not bite, and the bolt of
lightning that hits you, you will never see!"

Heavy as the going was, and interfering with her progress through her wet
garments did, Ruth ran up the hill underneath the dripping trees. She saw
the flitting, shadowy figure once more. Again she called as loudly as she
could shout:

"Wait! Wait! I won't hurt you."

Whoever or whatever it was, the figure did not stay. It flitted on about
two hundred yards ahead of the pursuing girl.

At times it disappeared altogether; but Ruth kept on up the hill and her
quarry always reappeared. She was quite positive this was the creature
that had shrieked, for the mournful cry was not repeated after she caught
sight of the figure.

"It is somebody who has been frightened by the storm," she thought. "Or it
is a lost child. This is a wild hillside, and one might easily be lost up
here."

Then she called again. She thought the strange figure turned and
hesitated. Then, of a sudden, it darted into a clump of brush. When Ruth
came panting to the spot she could see no trace of the creature, or the
path which it had followed.

But directly before Ruth was an opening in the hillside--the mouth of a
deep ravine which had not been visible from the road below.

Down this ravine ran a noisy torrent which had cut itself a wider and
deeper bed since the cloudburst on the heights. Small trees, brush, and
rocks had been uprooted by the force of the stream, but its current was
now receding. One might wa