"Run? Never!" wailed the plump one. "I can only hobble."

They tramped on. The afternoon shadows were lengthening now, and Cora's face wore a somewhat anxious look. They entered another patch of woodland, and as they emerged into a clearing Cora cried:

"Look at the sun!"

"What's the matter with it?" Belle demanded. "I think that is a perfectly good sun."

"But it's in front of us," said Cora. "It's in front of us!"

For a moment the others did not realize what she meant. They stared at the big red ball which was sinking to rest amid a bank of gorgeously colored clouds. Then Jack exclaimed:

"By Jove! you're right, Sis. The sun should be back of us. We were going east, but we've got turned around, and are going west."

"Unless the sun has changed," put in Paul, with a laugh, "and is coming up in the morning. We may have been walking all night and didn't know it."

"It's no joke," said Cora, seriously, as the others laughed. "Jack, we're lost!"

CHAPTER XVII-TWO MEN

Naturally enough Cora's words were echoed aloud by some of the party.

"Lost!" cried Belle. "How do you know?"

"We're going in the wrong direction," Cora said. "Don't you know when persons get lost in the woods they always go around in a circle? Nearly always they turn to the right, as we have done. I forget the explanation, but it has something to do with the right side of the body being stronger than the left. And that's what we've done. We've wandered around in a circle, so of course we're lost."

"That doesn't follow at all," declared Walter.

"Why not?" challenged Cora.

"Because the path may have been shifting. We've only followed the trail through the woods. We haven't gone off it."

"That's so," chimed in Paul. "We're still on the path, and it must lead somewhere."

"Perhaps it's a cow-path," suggested Bess. "It's narrow enough for one."

"Well, even a cow-path leads somewhere," said Hazel. "We'll end up at a stable."

"Or a dairy," added Jack. "Some bread and milk won't go bad if we miss our supper."

"Oh, we won't miss it," declared Walter. "We're bound to end up somewhere, and even if we come out a mile or more from our camp. And if we see a house, we can hire a farmer to drive us over, if we're too tired to walk."

"Yes, we could do that," Cora a.s.sented. "But what plan is best to follow now? Shall we keep on the way we are going, on this path, even though it leads west and our camp is to the east? Or shall we go back until we find a path extending in an easterly direction?"

"Whew!" whistled Jack. "That sounds like a question in my old school geography. What's the answer, Cora?"

"I wish I knew," said his sister. "Let's take a vote on it."

They discussed the matter a little while, and the general opinion was that it was better to go on than to retreat.

"We didn't see any houses in all the distance we came," said Walter, "and it is getting so late now we may have to appeal to a farmer to drive us back. I say go ahead, even if the direction seems to be wrong.

We may reach a house this way."

"I guess you're right," admitted Cora, "though it seems illogical to go deliberately away from, instead of toward, our camp."

"Perhaps it isn't called Camp Surprise for nothing," suggested Hazel.

"What do you mean?" asked her brother.

"I mean it may surprise us by appearing when and where we least expect it."

"You always were a hopeful child," laughed Paul. His sister blushed.

"You believed in Santa Claus long after I had detected our respected parents sneaking down the back stairs with the presents," he continued.

"Hope on, foolish one."

"She may be right at that," said Jack, championing Hazel's cause. "If the sun insists on appearing where we think it oughtn't to be the camp may take a notion to do the same thing. Come on! Forward!"

A little anxious, they kept on, rather tired, but not greatly discouraged. Youthful hearts are not made for discouragement, fortunately.

"Anything left to eat?" asked Jack after a bit, when the path seemed to be shifting somewhat toward the east.

"A little," announced Walter, who was carrying the basket. "But you can't have any."

"Why not?" demanded Jack, indignantly. "I have as good a right as you.

Who delegated you to carry the rations?"

"n.o.body else seemed to want to. Now I'm in charge of the commissary department, and I'm going to put you, and myself included, on short rations. We may have to stay out all--"

"Ahem!" interrupted Paul, giving Walter a nudge. "Do you see anything like a house through the trees? Cut out that talk about having to stay out all night, if that's what you were going to say," he added in a quick whisper.

"It was," Walter admitted. "But I'll cease."

"You'd better. We don't want the girls to get nervous."

"I don't see any house," Jack reported, having looked in the direction indicated by Paul.

"I thought I saw smoke, and where there's smoke there's generally a house or a camp," Paul said. "However, I may have been mistaken."

It was evident that he had been, but a little later, as they once more emerged from the woods, Cora gave a joyful cry and called out:

"There it is!"

"What, our camp?" asked Belle.

"No, a house! See it?"