tty spoke too late. Curious to see the whole interior of the
cabin, Amy stepped across the threshold. A moment later she heard
something move behind her. She turned, but not in time.

An instant later a raised, sliding door of heavy logs slid down in
grooves, and Amy was a prisoner.

"Oh--Oh!" she cried out. "What has happened?" and she beat on the heavy
logs with her little hands. "Oh dear!"

"It's a trap! You're in a bear trap!" cried Betty. "We must go for
help!"

CHAPTER XVI

TROUBLE

The girls were stunned for a moment. After Amy's first frantic cry, and
Betty's realization of the danger, and the way out, there came, as there
often does following a shock, a period of lethargy.

Mollie and Grace, who had clung to each other spasmodically, now
separated. Grace, even in this moment sought her sweater pocket, where,
as might be supposed, she carried some of her seemingly never-failing
chocolates.

"What--what must we do?" asked Mollie, who looked to Betty to answer
this question. It was curious how even Mollie, used as she was to
thinking for herself, turned to the Little Captain now.

"Get her out, of course. If we can't do it, we must go for help. But we
must get her out!" Thus spoke Betty promptly.

"Is--is she really in there?" asked Grace, as though she hardly believed
it. Grace had a habit of saying surprising things when least expected.

"Yes, I am in here! Oh, don't go away and leave me!" begged the
imprisoned one, sobbing hysterically. "I shall die if you do!"

"That's all right, Amy dear," answered Betty soothingly. "We won't leave
you. Or, at least some one will stay with you. But perhaps you can find
a way out yourself. Look and see, dear."

But it was only too evident that the bear trap was made to hold whatever
unfortunate animal or human being got into it. The affair was like a
small log cabin, the whole front consisting of a heavy planked sliding
door, dropping down from above in grooves.

The back of the trap was against a great slab of rock, and the sides and
roofs were made of heavy logs, notched together at the ends, and spiked.
While there were chinks and crevices between the logs they were not
large enough for even a cat to get through. The girls, as far as they
could see, could find no way for Amy to get out unless the heavy door
was raised, and this they did not believe they could accomplish.

"Can you see a way out, Amy?" asked Betty. "Look carefully, my dear."

They