asn't she been shooting with
you? Perhaps she is somewhere near. Here is Ceally; I will ask her."

At this moment Ceally entered with a great bowl of vegetable soup that
looked most inviting to the hungry girls.

"I haven't seen Miss Mollie all morning," she explained. "Not since she
started for a walk up that hill over 'yond'."

Barbara, Grace and Ruth stared at each other with white, frightened
faces. They remembered Mollie had gone off for a walk early that morning;
but she had promised not to go far up the hill.

"Call Naki, at once," said Miss Stuart hurriedly. "He will probably know
where Mollie is."

"No, auntie." Ruth shook her head. "Naki doesn't know. He has been
teaching us to shoot all the forenoon."

Bab jumped up from the table. "Please, Miss Sallie," she cried hastily,
"may Naki and I go out to look for Mollie? I am afraid she is lost on the
hill."

"Sit down, Bab," quietly said Miss Sallie, in the voice the girls
recognized as final. "You and the other girls must each eat a plate of
this soup. You are not to start out to look for Mollie when you are tired
and hungry. Ceally, see that Naki has some food at once, and bring the
coffee to me."

Barbara was almost crying. "Oh, Miss Sallie," she pleaded, "I can't eat.
Don't make me wait. I must go at once."

"Eat your soup, Barbara," was Miss Sallie's reply.

Poor Bab obediently choked it down, while Ruth and Grace followed her
example. Then they each drank a cup of coffee.

It was Miss Sallie who ate nothing. She was more frightened than the
girls; for the woods were more terrible to her than to the young people.
Then, Mollie was the youngest of the party, and Miss Stuart felt she was
less able to look after herself. Besides, Ceally had hinted strange tales
of the haunted mountain back of them. At the time, Miss Sallie had
refused to listen; it had seemed utter nonsense, that tale of a ghost
which haunted a lost Indian trail. Now, the idea came to Miss Stuart,
that perhaps the ghost on the mountain was some criminal, a fugitive from
justice, who made his home on the deserted hill.

It was Bab who led the way up to the top of the ravine. But there she
stopped and waited for Naki and the girls to join her.

Looking for lost people in the woods was an old business with the guide.
He did not take the fact of disobedient Mollie's disappearance any too
seriously. Once up the hill, he blew on a great horn which he carried.
Once, twice, thrice! There