ling back and forth.

She had been on guard for something more than two hours when she was
startled by three shots from somewhere lower down the mountain.
Harriet pointed her rifle into the air and promptly pulled the trigger
twice. Two heavy reports from her rifle caused an instant commotion in
the camp of the Meadow-Brook Girls. The girls untangled themselves
from their blankets and sprang up very much frightened. Their nerves
were on edge after all they had experienced, and these shots, fired so
near at hand, had sent at least three of them to the verge of panic.

"Are we attacked?" cried Jane.

"We may be," answered Harriet. "Hurry and get yourselves together.
Some one besides ourselves is in the mountains and we must be ready for
whatever comes. I don't know what it is. Hurry, please! We may have
to leave here very suddenly."

No time was lost in "getting themselves together," as Harriet had
expressed it. Fortunately, having gone to bed with their clothing on,
there was little preparation to make. This completed, at Miss Elting's
direction the girls moved off in a body, secreting themselves in the
shadows some distance from the light of the campfire, but within sight
of it. Up to this time Harriet had made no explanation. Miss Elting,
after having placed the girls to her satisfaction, eagerly demanded to
know the meaning of Harriet's signals, the guardian not having heard
the other shots fired farther, down the mountainside.

"I answered a signal," replied Miss Burrell.

"Oh, then it is the guide? It's Janus!" cried Miss Elting joyously.

"No, it was not Janus. The signal was fired from a rifle," answered
Harriet Burrell.

CHAPTER XXIV

CONCLUSION

"There goes another shot!" exclaimed Harriet.

"Answer it, dear."

"There are only five more shells in the gun. Shall I use them all?"

"Shoot once."

Harriet did so, getting two signal shots in return.

"That means the strangers have heard and understood, does it not?"
questioned the guardian.

"I think so. Now, I would suggest that we keep very quiet until we see
who it is. We don't know but it may be our old enemy, who is taking
this method of locating us. I have four more cartridges in the
magazine. I think we should be able to hold the strangers off with
those if we have to."

"Do not fire a shot unless I tell you to!" commanded Miss Elting firmly.

Harriet agreed with a nod, while the guardian stepped back to warn the