ht have gotten a reward," said Mollie.

"Never mind--we have the five hundred dollars," exclaimed Grace.

"It may already be claimed," spoke Betty.

When they had seen the express go safely by, thankful that they had had a
small share in preventing a possible loss of life, the girls continued on
their way. They stopped for lunch in a little grove of trees, brewing
tea, and partaking of the cake, bread and meat Amy's cousin had provided.
Amy had torn her skirt on a barbed wire fence and the rent was sewed up
beside the road.

The clouds seemed to be gathering more thickly, and with rather
anxious looks at the sky the members of the Camping and Tramping Club
hastened on.

"Girls, we're going to get wet!" exclaimed Mollie, as they passed a
cross-road, pausing to look at the sign-board.

"And it's five miles farther on to Broxton!" said Amy. "Can we
ever make it?"

"I think so--if we hurry," said Betty. "A little rain won't hurt us.
These suits are made to stand a drenching."

"Then let's walk fast," proposed Grace.

"She wouldn't have said that with those other shoes," remarked
Amy, drily.

"Got any candy?" demanded Mollie. "I'm hungry!"

Without a word Grace produced a bag of chocolates. It was surprising how
she seemed to keep supplied with them.

The girls were hurrying along, now and then looking apprehensively at the
fast-gathering and black clouds, when, as they turned a bend in the road,
Amy, who was walking beside Grace, cried out:

"Oh, it's a bear! It's a bear!"

"What's that--a new song?" demanded Mollie, laughing.

"No--look! look!" screamed Amy, and she pointed to a huge, hairy creature
lumbering down the middle of the highway.

CHAPTER XVI

THE DESERTED HOUSE

The girls screamed in concert, and whose voice was the loudest was a
matter that was in doubt. Not that the Little Captain and her chums
lingered long to determine. The bear stopped short in the middle of the
road, standing on its hind legs, waving its huge forepaws, and lolling
its head from side to side in a sort of Comical amazement.

"Run! Run!" screamed Betty. "To the woods!"

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" That seemed the extent of Mollie's vocabulary just then.

"Climb a tree," was the advice of Grace.

"Is he coming? Is it coming after us?" Amy wanted to know.

She glanced over her shoulder as she put the question, and there
nearly followed an accident, for Amy was running, and the look back
caused her to stumble. Betty, who