ten our little girls! Call up
Long Sam, Bob; tell him to bring lanterns."

Many of the neighbours volunteered assistance and inside of an hour
there were various search parties beating the woods for the missing
girls.

But Dotty, when thinking she was walking toward home had really been
walking in the opposite direction and the two girls were much farther
away from camp than their rescuers thought for.

"Nothing doing," said Jack Norris, despondently, as he met Bob and Bert
in the woods.

"Then we must keep at it," said Bert; "anything is better than giving
up."

The various searchers separated and came together again. They screamed
and shouted; they whistled and blew horns; their dogs barked, and it
seemed as if some of these noises must reach the girls' ears and bring
response calls.

But there was no success, and one by one the neighbours gave up and went
home.

But Mr. Rose and the two boys, with Long Sam, kept up the search all
through the night. They built fires occasionally, but dared not leave
them, and put them out as they went on.

At last, Long Sam seated himself dejectedly on a fallen log, his
extraordinary length of limb doubling up like a jacknife.

"'Tain't no use," he declared. "They ain't no livin' use o' trackin'
these woods any longer. We mought strike them girls in a minute and then
again we moughtn't run across 'em in a thousand years. Lord knows I'm
willin' to keep on, but I'm jest about tuckered out. And I put it to you
Mr. Rose, wouldn't it be better to rest a bit, and then push on?"

"Perhaps it would, Sam," and Mr. Rose's fingers worked nervously; "but I
couldn't stay still, I'd go crazy. I think I'll push on and take my
chances."

"Yes, and get yourself lost," grumbled Sam; "so's we'd have three to
hunt 'stidden o' two!"

"You are done up, Sam," said Bert Fayre, kindly. "You stay here, and we
three will drive ahead a little."

"Wal, I'll jest give one more howl, and see if that ketches anythin'."

Long Sam stood up on a log and gave a high pitched, long drawn out
shout, that seemed as if it must penetrate the farthest depths of the
forest.

"Now one, all together, like that," he said, and the four voices, joined
in a mighty shout and then waited in breathless silence.

"I heard 'em!" Sam cried out; "I heard 'em! Now all you keep quiet!" And
then Sam's voice rang out once more in a sharp short shriek. He listened
and then exclaimed; "Yep! I heard 'em! Come on!" And with lo