ejaculated her brother, poking her. "Do be still. Ralph isn't
going to get lost--what d'ye think he is?"

"How'll we see our way?" Helen asked Bob and Ann.

"Feel it. We'll go in the dark. Then we can see their lantern the
quicker."

"There's no wood here fit for torches," Bob admitted. "And I have plenty
of matches. Come on! We sha'n't get lost."

"What do you really suppose has happened to them?" demanded Helen of Bob,
as soon as they were out of hearing of the camp.

"Give it up. Something extraordinary--that's positive," declared the big
fellow.

They crept through the tunnel, Bob lighting a match occasionally, until
they reached the first crack in the roof, open to the sky. It was not
snowing very hard.

"Of course they wouldn't have tried climbing up here to get out," queried
Helen.

"Of course not!" exclaimed Ann. "What for?"

"No," said Bobbins. "They kept straight ahead--and so will we."

In five minutes, however, when they stopped, whispering, in a little
chamber, Ann suddenly seized her companions and commanded them to hold
their breath!

"I hear something," she whispered.

The others strained their ears to hear, too. In a moment a stone rattled.
Then there sounded an unmistakable footstep upon the rock. Somebody was
approaching.

"They're coming back?" asked Helen, doubtfully.

"Hush!" commanded Ann again. "Whoever it is, he has no light. It can't be
Ruth."

Much heavier boots than those the girl of the Red Mill wore now rattled
over the loose stones. Ann pulled the other two down beside her where she
crouched in the corner.

"Wait!" she breathed.

"Can it be some wild animal?" asked Helen.

"With boots on? I bet!" scoffed Bob.

It was pitch dark. The three crouching together in the corner of the
little chamber were not likely to attract the attention of this marauder,
if all went well. But their hearts beat fast as the rustle of the
approaching footsteps grew louder.

There loomed up a man's figure. It looked too big to be either Tom or
Ralph, and it passed on with an assured step. He needed no lamp to find a
path that seemed well known.

"Who--what----"

"Hush, Helen!" commanded Ann.

"But he's going right to the cave--and he carried a gun."

"I didn't see the gun," whispered Ann.

"I did," agreed Bob, squeezing Helen's arm. "It was a rifle. Do you
suppose there is any danger?"

"It couldn't be anybody hunting us, do you suppose?" queried Helen, in a
shaken voice. "Anyb