ng has scared him," I exclaimed, as the dog, eyes like lighted
candles, rushed frantically between my legs and buried his head in
Miss Barrison's lap.

"Poor doggy!" she said, smoothing the collapsed pup; "poor, p-oor
little beast! Did anything scare him? Tell aunty all about it."

When a dog flees _without yelping_ he's a badly frightened creature. I
instinctively started back towards the camp whence the beast had fled,
and before I had taken a dozen steps Miss Barrison was beside me,
carrying the dog in her arms.

"I've an idea," she said, under her breath.

"What?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the camp.

"It's this: I'll wager that we find those pies gone!"

"Pies gone?" I repeated, perplexed; "what makes you think--"

"They _are_ gone!" she exclaimed. "Look!"

I gaped stupidly at the rough pine table where the pies had stood in
three neat rows of four each. And then, in a moment, the purport of
this robbery flashed upon my senses.

"The transparent creatures!" I gasped.

"Hush!" she whispered, clinging to the trembling dog in her arms.

I listened. I could hear nothing, see nothing, yet slowly I became
convinced of the presence of something unseen--something in the forest
close by, watching us out of invisible eyes.

A chill, settling along my spine, crept upward to my scalp, until
every separate hair wiggled to the roots. Miss Barrison was pale, but
perfectly calm and self-possessed.

"Let us go in-doors," I said, as steadily as I could.

"Very well," she replied.

I held the door open; she entered with the dog; I followed, closing
and barring the door, and then took my station at the window, rifle in
hand.

There was not a sound in the forest. Miss Barrison laid the dog on the
floor and quietly picked up her pad and pencil. Presently she was deep
in a report of the phenomena, her pencil flying, leaf after leaf from
the pad fluttering to the floor.

Nor did I at the window change my position of scared alertness, until
I was aware of her hand gently touching my elbow to attract my
attention, and her soft voice at my ear--

"You don't suppose by any chance that the dog ate those pies?"

I collected my tumultuous thoughts and turned to stare at the dog.

"Twelve pies, twelve inches each in diameter," she reflected,
musingly. "One dog, twenty inches in diameter. How many times will the
pies go into the dog? Let me see." She made a few figures on her pad,
thought awhile, produced a tape-measure f