rst heard an exclamation from Kara. She had not been so sound
asleep for the past hour as she had preferred to pretend.

Kara sat up, her arms outstretched as if she were a child begging to
be lifted up.

Tory started toward her. She then turned and ran forward with a cry of
relief. Had Fate allowed her to choose her own and Kara's rescuers she
would have selected the two figures now appearing at the brow of the
east side of the hill. They wore the uniforms of Boy Scouts and were
the brothers of one of the girls in her own Patrol. They were also her
own intimate friends.

"Don, Lance!" Tory exclaimed, a little breathless and incoherent. "How
in the world did you find this impossible place? Kara and I have been
fearing we might have to stay here always!"

Don held out his hand and caught Tory's, giving it a reassuring
pressure. He was a big, blue-eyed fellow with fair hair and a splendid
physique.

In contrast Victoria Drew appeared small and fragile and incapable.

Lance McClain was entirely unlike his brother in appearance. He was
dark and small. He went directly to the girl who seemed most to
require his help.

As she struggled to rise at his approach and was not able, Lance knelt
down on the grass beside her, while Kara explained what had occurred.

Never, Tory Drew decided, would she forget the aspect of their own
camp in Beechwood Forest, when an hour or more later she, in the lead,
caught the first glimpse of it. It was as if one had struggled through
one of the circles of Purgatory to reach Paradise at last.

Actually a few lines from Dante that her father had recited many times
returned to Tory's memory:

"My senses down, when the true path I left;
But when a mountain foot I reached, where closed
The valley that had pierced my heart with dread,
I looked aloft and saw his shoulders broad
Already vested with that planet's beam,
Who leads all wanderers safe through every way."

The way had been difficult with Kara helpless.

With their arms forming a kind of basket chair and Kara's arms about
their necks, Donald and Lance had moved slowly down the hillside.

Once Tory became aware that Lance looked almost as ill and exhausted
as Kara herself.

Don's color continued as ruddy, his eyes as blue and serene and his
expression as steadfast as the moment when they had set out on the
descent of the hill. To call attention to the fact that Lance w