Some rods up the ascent Ruth came to an open place—a table of rock that might really have been a giant’s dining-table, so flat and perfectly shaped it was. She could look down upon Helen and Wonota, and they looked up and called to her.
“Look out for the pirates!” shouted Helen, with laughter.
Ruth waved her hand, smiling, and, crossing the rock, parted the brush and stepped out of sight of her friends. Two steps she took through the clinging bushes when a most surprising figure started up before her.
There was plenty of light, even if the sun had gone down. She was not uncertain at all as to the nature of the figure that confronted her—that of a man.
She saw almost instantly that the old man’s brown eyes were more like a child’s in expression than like an angry man’s. He grinned at her, but the grimace was involuntary or meaningless.
“Hush!” he whispered. “Hush!”
Ruth remained both quiet and speechless, looking into his wrinkled old face calmly. She thought he must be a beggar from his clothing, but she could not imagine him a robber, nor even one of Helen’s “pirates.” As she said nothing the old man repeated his sibilant warning:
“Hush!”
“I am ‘hushing’ just as hard as I can,” whispered the girl in return, and smiling a little now. “Why must I ‘hush’?”
“Hush!” he said again, quite as earnestly. “You are in danger of your life, young woman.”