Part 3 (2/2)
”We beat them We--” Marian broke short off ”Look, Lucile Look over there!”
To the right of the up and down as they had seen it once before, was the head of the strange brown boy
”Do you suppose they did kidnap hio by where he is,” said Marian ”They can't catch us now”
The boat swung round and soon they were beside the swihtly together! He mustn't have been their friend They carried him off They had hi”
They dragged the boy on board Then they were away again, full speed once hed Lucile, as she settled herself at the wheel ”They've our rowboat and we have theirs I hope that after this they will let us alone”
”The person who is bothering me,” said Marian with a frown, ”is this little brown visitor of ours Who is he? Where did he coo? What are we going to do with hi her brow, ”is more than I know Neither do I kno those men came to steal him They probably kidnapped hi a slave of hiht,” said Marian, ”and probably the problem will solve itself in time”
The probleht; the re part of the problee that, had the girls been able to vision thee on the horizon of the future, they would have been tee their plans for the year just before them
The first question, as to be done with the little brown stranger, was solved that night He solved it hi a watch Lucile was on the second watch at so, when she saw the brown boy stirring in his place by the fire She was seated far back in the shadowy depths of the tent with a rifle across her knee He could not see her, though she could catch his everymotion he carried his two blankets to a shadowy spot and there folded each one, laying one upon the other He then proceeded to gather up certain articles about ca tackle and ain, like so of the forest, he paused to cock his head to one side and listen
”Should I call Marian and stop him?” Lucile asked herself The question was left all undecided The little dra to suffer interruption It was like so that had happened in her earlier childhood when she had lain in a garret watching a mothera loss of six cents, for she would have been paid a cent apiece for the capture of those mice
The brown boy next approached the kitchen tent He entered, to appear a moment later with a modest armload of provisions
When these had been placed on the blanket, with marvelous speed and skill he converted the whole into a convenient pack
”Shall I stop him?” Lucile asked herself
She was about to call out from her dark corner, when a peculiar action of the boy arrested her He appeared to be taking soe suit of bird-skin
”I wonder what it is?” she puzzled
Whatever it was, he walked with it to a broad, flat rock, and placing it in the very center, turned and left it there The object gave forth such a startling lustre in theit, she did not realize that the brown boy had thrown his pack over his shoulder and disappeared into the woods
When she did discover it, she ed her shoulders and smiled:
”Probably for the best,” she told herself ”He's taken nothing of any great value and nothing ill need badly, and, unless I uess, he'll be quite able to take care of hia in the hook Let's see what he left, though”
Cautiously she crept out into the ht A low excla object As she examined it closely, she found it to be three teeth, apparently elk teeth They were held together with a plain leather thong, but set in the center of each was a ring of blue jade and in the center of each of two of the rings was a large pearl The center of the third was beyond doubt a crudely cut diaht Lucile turned it over and over in her paliven us a king's ransoht he was stealing,”
she reproached herself
Her first instinct was to attempt to call him back ”But,” she told herself, ”my voice would not carry far in that dense woods Besides, he wouldn't understand htened”