t pile of snow hadn't sifted down there
yesterday----"

"I know!" burst out Ruth. "It was providential."

"You girls and boys want to be careful climbing around these rocks," said
Jerry Sheming, gravely.

At that moment the chorus of shouts from above reached their ears. Ruth
turned about and her lips opened. She would have replied, but the
backwoods boy leaped across the fire and seized her arm.

"Don't make a sound!" he exclaimed.

"Oh! Jerry----"

"If that constable hears----"

"He isn't with us, I tell you," said Ruth.

"But wait. He might hear. I don't want him to find this place," spoke the
boy, eagerly. "He may be within hearing."

"No. I think not," Ruth explained. Then she told Jerry of the morning's
hunt for him and the course followed by both parties. He shook his head
for a moment, and then ran to a shelf at the other side of the little
cavern.

"I'll communicate with your friends. I'll make them understand. But we
mustn't shout. Lem Daggett may be within hearing."

"But I can't stay with you here, Jerry," objected the girl.

"Of course you can't, Miss. I will get you out--another way. You'll see.
But we'll explain to your friends above and they will stop yelling then.
If they keep on that way they'll draw Lem Daggett here, if he isn't
already snooping around."

Meanwhile Jerry had found a scrap of paper and a pencil. He hurriedly
wrote a few lines upon the paper. Then he produced a heavy bow and a long
arrow. The message he tied around the shank of the arrow.

"Oh! can you shoot with that?" cried Ruth, much interested.

"Reckon so," grinned Jerry. "Uncle Pete wouldn't give me much powder and
shot when I was a kid. And finally I could bring home a bigger bag of wild
turkeys than he could, and all I had to get 'em with was this
bow'n'arrer."

He strung the bow, and Ruth saw that it took all his strength to do it.
The boys and girls were still shouting for her in a desultory fashion.
Jerry laid his finger on his lips, nodded at his visitor, and stepped
swiftly out of sight along the cleared shelf of rock.

Ruth left the fire to peer after him. She saw him bend the bow and saw the
swift flight of the arrow as it shot out of the chasm and curved out of
sight beyond the broken edge of the snow-wreath which masked the summit of
the cliff.

She heard the clamor of her friends' voices as they saw the arrow shoot
over their heads. Then they were silent.

Jerry ran back to her and unstrung the