"Not unless I'd loaded it first," replied Jerry, with a quiet chuckle. "But you folks scared me quite as much as I did you—Why, it's Miss Hicks and Miss Cameron."
"Where is Ruth?" demanded Ann, anxiously.
"And Tom?" joined in Helen.
"And how did you get back here to Cliff Island?" asked Bob. "We understood that you'd been railroaded out of the country."
"Hold on! hold on!" exclaimed Jerry. "Let's hear first about Miss Fielding. Where's she gone? How came you folks in this cave?"
Helen was the one who told him. She related all the circumstances very briefly, but in a way to give Jerry a clear understanding of the situation.
"They've wandered off to the right. I know where they must be," said Jerry, decidedly. "I'll go find them. And then I'll get you all out of here. It has almost stopped snowing now."
"But how did you find your way back here to the island?" Bob demanded again.
"I ain't going to be beat by Blent," declared Jerry Sheming, doggedly. "I am going to have another look through the caves before I leave for good, and don't you forget it.
"The engine on that train yesterday morning broke a piston rod and had to stop down the lake shore. I hopped off and hid on the far bank, watching the island. If you folks hadn't come over this way to fish this morning, I'd been across before the storm began.