th of you. Do not think
you can frighten me into failure because you are as brave as
a--chicken!"

"Let them go, I say," said Peter, with a sternness in his voice that
gave Bessie a new ray of hope. "I have had my warning, I will profit by
it."

"You coward!" sneered John.

But that was too much for Peter. With a cry of rage he sprang forward.

"I fear no man, no man I can see or touch," he cried. "And no man shall
call me coward!"

In a moment the two were grappling in a furious fight. John was smaller
than Peter, but he was wiry and as lithe and powerful as a trained
athlete, so that he was a match, at first, for the rugged strength of
Peter. But he had had a hard day, and gradually Peter's strength wore
him down, and, as they crashed to the ground together, Peter was on top,
and plainly destined to be victor in the fight. He looked up at the two
girls.

"Go!" he said. "I will have nothing to do with you. I am fighting with
my friend to save him, not for your sakes, you who have a devil to help
you. If he keeps you harm will come to him. John, listen to me: I do
this because you are my friend."

Bessie and Dolly needed no second invitation. Amazing as was this
latest intervention in favor, they were too happy to stop to question
it. It was their chance to escape, and five minutes later they were out
of sight, and making their way, as fast as their tired bodies would
allow them to do, toward Long Lake and safety.

CHAPTER XIII

SAFE AT LAST

Indeed, any lingering fear Bessie and Dolly might have had that John had
succeeded in escaping from his two anxious friends who were so
determined to protect him against his own recklessness, was dissipated
before they came in sight of the lake, when, at a crossing of the trail,
a glad cry hailed them and a sturdy guide stepped across their path.

"Well, I'll be hornswoggled!" he exclaimed. "Ain't you the two that was
lost, or stolen by that gypsy critter?"

"We certainly are," said Dolly and Bessie, in one breath. "Were you
looking for us?"

"Lookin' fer you!" he exclaimed. "Every one in these here woods has been
a-lookin' fer you two since sun-up, I guess. Godfrey, but we was scared!
Didn't know but that there gypsy might have sneaked you clean out of
the woods! How did you all ever come to get loose? Or was you just plain
lost?"

"No, we weren't lost," said Bessie. "He carried Dolly off all right;
this is Dolly Ransom, you know. But he didn't catch me