"What that may mean to us! Oh, I must
find father! He will know. I must signal to him."
"Please do not to-night," begged Cora, fearing a new collapse from
the excitement. "Wait until daylight. Here, now we shall get our
food."
They were within the pine hut and had lighted a lantern. A loaf of
bread and some salt meat were easy to find in the rudely-made box
that served for a closet.
"I am actually starved," Cora remarked, with an effort to be
pleasant. "I guess your pine trees make one hungry."
"Hark!" breathed Laurel. "I heard a step!"
The next moment Cora stood at the entrance to the hut, and waited.
The step was coming closer and closer! And it was plainly that of a
man!
"Oh, what can it be?" gasped Laurel. "Or who is it?"
"I--I don't know," whispered Cora, her voice trembling in spite of
herself. "But we must be brave, Laurel, brave."
"Oh, yes, I will be! Oh I how glad I am that some one is with me--
that you are here!"
Cora felt the other's frail body trembling as she put her own strong
arms around the shrinking girl. Then Cora peered from the door of
the hut. Still that stealthy footstep till the approach of that
unknown. Cora felt as if she must scream, yet she held her fears in
check--not so much for her own sake as for the other.
Suddenly there was a crash in the underbrush, the crackling of
brushes, the breaking of twigs.
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