"Let us hope so," said Alice, in a low voice.

It took some little time to arrange for making this new film, and in the
first scenes neither Ruth nor Alice were required. They wandered off to
one side, remaining within call, however.

"There's an orchid!" exclaimed Alice, as she pointed to a beautiful
bloom, clinging to a tree. Seemingly it drew its nourishment from the air
alone.

"How beautiful!" remarked Ruth. "I wonder if we could get it?"

"I can climb the tree," declared her sister. "I have on an old skirt.
I'll get it."

She did, after some little difficulty, and as she was bringing it to
Ruth, Alice looked through an opening between the trees, and exclaimed:

"Oh, there are Tommy and Nellie. They are after flowers too, for they
each have a handful. But I must call to them. They should not wander too
far away."

Together she and Alice, admiring the orchid, advanced toward the two
children, who had come to a halt under a big sycamore.

Then, as Alice was about to call, she uttered an exclamation of terror.

"See!" she whispered hoarsely to Ruth. "That creature in the tree--right
over their heads, and it is crouching for a leap!"

Ruth looked and saw a tawny beast with laid-back ears and twitching tail,
stretched on a big limb a short distance above the ground, and right over
the two children, who were innocently prattling away, and looking at the
flowers they had gathered.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE ANIMATED LOGS

For a moment Alice and Ruth were almost paralyzed with fear. They stood
spellbound, and could only gaze horrifiedly at the tawny beast stretched
out on the limb of the tree.

"What--what shall we do?" asked Alice.

"What can we do?" Ruth returned. "If we move toward them, or call out,
the beast may spring on them. What is it--a tiger?"

"I don't know. Of course it's not a tiger, for there are none in this
country except in circuses. Maybe it's a wildcat."

"Oh, they are terrible. But this doesn't look like the wildcat Flaming
Arrow shot in the backwoods."

"No, it doesn't," agreed Alice. "But we must do something to save those
children!"

Tommy and Nellie, all unconscious of their peril, were still sorting
their blossoms beneath the tree.

"If we could only get them out of the way--somehow," urged Alice. "Then
we might hurry off before the beast could spring."

"But it might chase after us--and them."

"That's so. One of us had better go for help. You--you go, Alice. I--I'll