"Father," called the girl, "visitors!"

"Eh? Eh?" answered the man. "Physicians, with medicines? Will they save her? Come in! Come in!"

They filed slowly into the cabin wondering what sort of a person it was sitting in the darkness and calling for physicians. The girl struck a match and lighted two candles, and at least three of the visitors noticed that the candlesticks were of silver, tall and graceful in design, and as bright as rubbing could make them.

The father like the daughter was tall and slender, with the same dark blue eyes, although his had a strange unseeing look in them. His hair was very thick and almost white, his frame spare to emaciation, but he carried himself erect and his shoulders were broad and well developed.

"Make a fire, father," the girl ordered, and he obediently left the room, presently returning with an armful of wood.

Oh, the joy of sinking to the floor in front of that warm blaze! Ben consulted with the girl at the door of the cabin, and the strange father, rubbing his hands and smiling absently, remarked with an accent that was very different from Mr. Lupo's or any of the natives thereabouts:

"Not half bad, this fire, eh? Rather cheerful on a dull night."

Presently his daughter began preparing supper on a little wood stove in the lean-to back of the house. Swiftly and silently, with Ben's a.s.sistance, she made coffee, scrambled eggs and fried bacon.

"You may set the table," she said to Percy, pointing to some shelves at one end of the cabin.

Percy obediently placed on the plain deal table six blue plates, nicked and cracked in a dozen places, but undoubtedly of Canton; also in a tin box he found knives and forks and spoons, all shining as brightly as the candlesticks, and, he felt perfectly certain, all of silver. It was necessary to revive Mary with some hot coffee before she could eat a mouthful, and after she had taken a little food, Ben hoisted her in his arms and carried her into a small adjoining room where he laid her on a cot; all this under the supervision of the young mistress of the cabin.

There was no attempt at conversation while they satisfied their ravenous appet.i.tes, but later, when the wanderers had risen and Billie was consulting with Ben and Percy what was best to do, the father pointed to Nancy sitting in the darkest corner of the room in a small huddled heap.

"Rosalind has come out of the Forest of Arden," he said.

All eyes were turned on Nancy who shrank into the shadow. Suddenly Percy seized one of the tall candlesticks and held it over her head.

"Why, Nancy-Bell," he cried, "what has happened to your----"

Nancy spread her hands over her lap and turned her large blue eyes to them with a piteous expression.

"I took it off and threw it away in the swamp," she said tremulously. "I did hate the thing so, and it was full of hornets and not big enough to take a decent step in anyhow. I hoped no one would notice."

They were tired, but not too tired to laugh.

"If I had been dying, I should have died laughing," Billie often afterwards remarked in telling of this incident.

Nancy, minus her narrow velveteen skirt, was really a beguiling figure in blue pongee knickerbockers. The straight velveteen jacket reached just below her waist, and with her rumpled curls and weary expression she might easily have been taken for Rosalind, just arrived at the Forest of Arden with Celia and Touchstone.

But the wonder of it was how a half-crazed mountaineer could know anything about the greatest comedy in the world. This did not trouble them until afterwards, however.

"Billie," observed Ben presently, "I've been consulting with--with this young lady here. She knows the trail through the swamp and has consented to guide me back to the camp to-night. We may be able to make it in less than two hours by a short cut, she says, and we ought to start at once.

Miss Campbell will be half wild with uneasiness. As soon as it's daylight, I'll come back by the road in the 'Comet.' There are some bearskins and blankets. You can all put up here for the night. Percy will stay of course."

"But isn't that a great deal to ask of you, to take that long trip to-night?" asked Billie gratefully, turning to the girl.

"It is nothing," she answered shortly and set about lighting a lantern.

Then she beckoned to Ben and they silently left the cabin.

In a few moments, the father, who had been smoking a pipe at the cabin door, took one of the silver candlesticks from the mantel.

"Good night," he said courteously. "I trust you will have a pleasant rest after your journey. I presume you have been shown your rooms?"

"Yes, sir," answered Percy.

The man paused at the door of his bedroom at the other side of the cabin.

"I trust the physician will come soon," he said. "With luck he may reach there before I do."

"That's the man who sent me to the old ruined hotel," whispered Percy.

"He's certainly touched, but he's harmless."

They found two steamer rugs and several blankets in a heap on a bench, left there by the mountain girl for their comfort; and it was not long before they lay in a circle around the fire, sound asleep.

CHAPTER VI.

THE DOCTOR.

After the young people had departed on the morning of that eventful day, Miss Helen Campbell settled herself in a hammock on the upper porch with a novel and two new magazines. She loved the "children," as she called them, and the sound of their voices and laughter was as music to her ears, but occasionally she enjoyed a peaceful morning to herself without any chatter to disturb her quietude.

Who would have imagined as she sat there idly swinging in the hammock, that the dainty little lady was all the way to sixty years old? Her eyes were as blandly blue and clear as a child's; her complexion had never lost its peach blossom glow, and the fine network of wrinkles around her eyes and at the corners of her mouth was only faintly visible.

"But I'm getting old," she thought. "Those long trips have rejuvenated my spirits but my body is tired. I haven't the physique for adventuring any longer. I don't think I could stand a shock of any kind, great or small."

Her thoughts broke off at this point and she idly touched the railing of the porch with one of her little feet and set the hammock to a gentle motion like a rocking cradle.

"No, I shall not put myself in the way of shocks. I am glad we are not touring this summer; just taking life peacefully----"

Again her thoughts broke off. Her eyes wandered across the wide vista of valley flanked by a range of mountains. The landscape was flecked by great shadows cast by lazily moving ribbons of cloud. The foliage of the trees and the undergrowth on the opposite mountains were like rugs of velvet. One might imagine a gigantic figure stretched out on the soft green patches of forest. There were no harsh outlines to the mountains.

Their rugged edges were veiled and softened by the shadows of the pa.s.sing clouds. Miss Campbell closed her eyes.

"Life is very pleasant," she thought, "even at sixty."

After a long dreamy period as untroubled as a summer sea, some instinct compelled her to open her eyes, and she found herself looking straight into the eyes of Mrs. Lupo who was standing at the foot of the hammock.

Mrs. Lupo held her hands behind her back. Miss Campbell noticed at once that the woman's expression had changed. She had lost that look of a shy gentle animal. Her eyes had narrowed into little slits and her upper lip was drawn back showing an even row of glistening teeth. Without taking her eyes off Mrs. Lupo's, Miss Campbell sat up very straight and stiff.

"Well, what do you want?" she demanded, always holding the woman's gaze with hers.

Mrs. Lupo moved a step nearer, still with her hands behind her back.

"Stand where you are," ordered Miss Campbell, fired with superhuman courage and never once shifting her gaze. "Stand where you are," she repeated. There was not a tremor in her voice. "Now, give me what you are hiding behind you."

For at least a moment the two women stood looking at each other. If Miss Campbell had flinched, there is no telling what the half-savage creature, insane with rage, might have done.

And even now, with a swift movement, Mrs. Lupo brandished a long carving knife in Miss Campbell's face.

"Drop that instantly," thundered Miss Campbell in a voice that did not seem to be her own.