assurance, the young ladies proceeded to make
themselves comfortable in their novel quarters. Cora curled up in the
_Flyaway_, and the _Comet_, with Ed and Jack "sitting up in a
lying-down posture," as they expressed it, was placed just where the
young men could hear the girls whisper should any gypsies appear, or
rather be scented. The first man to do picket duty, Walter, was in the
_Get-There_, directly out in the road, so that presently it seemed a
night in the wide open might be a novelty rather than a misfortune.

Some time must have passed. Belle declared she was not asleep. Bess
vowed she was still asleep. Hazel begged both girls to keep quiet, but
the light of the gas lamps from the _Get-There_ was bobbing about, and
the flash of a new revolver was reflected in the night.

"What can be the matter?" sobbed Belle. "Oh, I knew we shouldn't stay
in these dreadful woods."

"As if we could help it," complained her sister. "Belle, if you insist
upon going on motor tours, why don't you try to get some sense?"

"All right, there!" called Jack, who now, with another headlight in
hand, was looking under and about the _Whirlwind_.

"Yes! What's the matter?" answered and asked Bess.

"Nothing that we know of," replied Jack, "but Wallie thought he scented
game, and we need something for breakfast."

"Goodness sakes! Likely a turtle or something," growled Bess, dropping
her plump self down plumper than ever on the cushions.

"I don't believe it," objected Belle. "They wouldn't wake us up for a
turtle--or something."

"Make it a moose then," suggested Hazel. "Moose are plenty in New
England, they say."

"With the horns?" asked Belle.

"With and without," replied Hazel. "But if you don't mind, I'm going
out to join in the hunt. I have always longed for a real, live hunt."

"Oh, please don't," begged Belle. "It might be a man!"

"No such luck. There's Cora with her lamp. They are certainly after
something," and with this she opened the tonneau door and went out with
the others into the wild, dark, lonely night.

"I distinctly saw him," she heard Jack say. "Now, keep your nerve.
Cora, where is the little gun?"

"I've got it," she replied. "I feel better with it. You boys have
two."

"What is it?" asked Hazel, now thoroughly alarmed.

"A man!" whispered Cora. "Walter saw him crawling around, and we are
bound to find him. He is alone, that's sure, and there are seven of
us."

"Oh!" gasped