r head
and fed her by the spoonful a cup of malted milk, also found in the ice
chest.

"Billie?" she said.

"That's my name," answered the doctor. "William for long."

"Nice boy," she added, patting him on the shoulder, with a very small
limp hand. "Have the children got back?"

"They will be here pretty soon, now," he answered, frowning and glancing
at his watch.

"Ben is a safe guide. They are safe with him. Wake me when they arrive,"
and turning over on her side, Miss Campbell went back to sleep.

Occasionally the doctor scanned the side of the mountain with his
telescope.

"The children are taking a long time," he said to himself. "They had
better look alive, if they want to make it before nightfall."

But night fell and there was no sign of the wanderers. The doctor lit a
cigar and watched the shadows creep up the side of the mountains. He
listened to the last twittering of the birds and then a silence,
profound and deep, settled on the camp.

Again he descended to the living room of the camp now in darkness.
Presently he lighted the green shaded lamp and two lanterns, hanging one
at the front of the house and the other at the back. He unpacked the
market basket and cooked himself some supper, and finally with a glass
of milk and a slice of bread for Miss Campbell when she waked, returned
to the upper sleeping porch.

"A telescope is an excellent thing," he observed, settling himself in a
steamer chair, a lamp on the floor beside him with a tin protector to
keep draughts from the flame. "I saw the woman plainly enough
flourishing the carving knife. It must have been sheer force of will on
the part of this little lady that made her drop it."

And now the darkness had indeed fallen, a black, impenetrable curtain.
Only the outline of the opposite range could be seen. It seemed to have
closed in on the camp, and like a gigantic wall, to shut it off from the
outer world. An owl hooted in a tree not far away and from a cleft in
the mountains came the weird song of the whippoorwill.

CHAPTER VII.

PHOEBE.

Fate had chosen a very simple way of bringing about events of great
importance to persons in this history. A doctor off on a walking trip
had idly lifted his telescope to scan the village in the valley. As he
swept his glass over the country, it had brought near to him glimpses of
white farmhouses, men working in the fields and then looming quite close
and unexpectedly large to his eye, a woma