s and into Mammy June's room. There was a
night light burning there, but nobody was with the old woman.

"Lawsy me!" exclaimed the old nurse when Mrs. Bunker asked her. "I ain't
seen them childern since I had my supper. No'm. They ain't been here."

The house was searched from cellar to garret by the two gentlemen.
Meanwhile the anxious mother and her hostess went to the library. Russ
had left there some spoiled sheets of cardboard with some of the letters
printed on them. It was easy to see the attempt he and Rose had made to
print plainly a notice to Sneezer, Mammy June's absent son, telling him
that his mother was at the big house.

"The dear things!" said Mrs. Armatage. "Your boy and girl are very kind,
Mrs. Bunker. They want to relieve Mammy's trouble."

"They have gone down there to-night to stick up those signs!" cried Mrs.
Bunker, inspired by a new thought.

"Well, I reckon nothing will hurt 'em," said her friend soothingly.
"I'll tell Mr. Armatage and he will go down there and get them."

This idea impressed both the men when they came back from their
unsuccessful search of the house.

The two men walked briskly along the trail to the burned cabin. The
stars gave them light enough to see all about the clearing when they
arrived. Not a sign of Russ or Rose did they find.

"Do you suppose they went home some other way?" asked Daddy Bunker.

"I don't know. I hope they haven't wandered into the thicket."

As Mr. Armatage spoke both men heard the terrible scream that had first
startled Russ and Rose. Mr. Bunker fairly jumped.

"That can't be the children!" he ejaculated.

The way his companion looked at him told the children's father a good
deal. Mr. Bunker seized Mr. Armatage's arm.

"Tell me! What is it?" he asked.

"Something that hasn't been heard around here for years," said the
planter, his voice trembling a little. "It's the cry of a panther."

Mr. Bunker, although he was practically a city man, had hunted a good
deal and had been in the wilder parts of the country very often. He knew
how terribly dangerous a panther might be on occasion; but he likewise
knew that ordinarily they would not attack human beings. Two little
children lost in the woods in which a panther was roaming up and down
was, however, a fearful thing.

"Get a gun and the hands!" exclaimed Mr. Bunker. "If Russ and Rose have
mistaken the way home, and are in that timber, they may be in peril."

Mr. Armatage started off on a