as the
stablemen came back over the grounds with the fractious horse!

CHAPTER XXIV

A LONELY RIDE

No sooner had Dorothy paddled around the bend in the stream that led
into the river, than she heard the alarm bell of the sanitarium ring.

"That's the alarm for me!" she told herself, "but they can never see
me in this narrow pass. How fortunate that no one saw me take the
boat. And I suppose they think I escaped from the front gate during
the excitement about the horse."

Dorothy was right in her surmise. So reasonable did it seem that she
had passed out by the front gate, when the guards came to the rescue
of those in danger from the frightened horse, that no one thought of
looking at the rear of the institution.

"I wonder where I am going?" she thought. "Perhaps this river runs
into a dangerous rapid. I have always heard that Maine waters are full
of surprises."

"At any rate, this is lovely," she went on musingly, "and, somehow, I
feel that I will get back to camp before nightfall."

The water was as smooth as glass, and in the sunshine that every
moment became more insistant, Dorothy, in her linen dress, paddled
away with all the skill she had acquired in dear old Glenwood School
lake. She had discarded the nurse's cap, and the coat, and as her own
suit was beneath the linen, she was only waiting for an opportunity to
discard the skirt.

"It pulls," she thought. "I might as well drop it now."

At this she stood up in the canoe very cautiously, and with one move
of her hand dropped the skirt into the bottom of the boat. "There,
that's more like paddling," she thought.

Adjusting herself again, she picked up the blade and plied it through
the clear water.

Suddenly the report of a gun startled her! Was it at her that the shot
had been fired?

Glancing over at the bank she saw something fall.

Could some person have been shot? The season for shooting was not
opened, but perhaps----

Then her alarm subsided. A man, who looked like an Indian, or a
lumberman, was pulling at something--it was a beautiful young deer!

Indignation filled her heart. But what could she do? Alone on that
water, and that man so near with his gun!

Fortunately, he was so interested in looking at his game that he
thought it not worth while to look at whoever might be passing in the
skiff; so, once more, Dorothy slid out of danger down the placid
stream.

In all her trouble she had kept the little watch and her co