Frank resolved to take another tack, and so he advanced, saying boldly and resolutely:
"Now that you have called us down here, I don't see how you are going to get rid of us. You want something of us, and we'll not leave you till we find out what it is."
The girl did not appear in the least alarmed. Instead of that, she laughed, and that laugh was like the ripple of falling water.
"Wal, now you're talkin'!" she cried, with something like a flash of admiration. "Mebbe you-uns has got some backbone arter all. I like backbone."
"I have not looked at mine for so long that I am not sure what condition it is in, but I know I have one."
"An' muscle?"
"A little."
"Then move this rock har that hez caught my foot an' holds it. That's what I wanted o' you-uns."
She lifted her skirt a bit, and, for the first time, they saw that her ankle had been caught between two large rocks, where she was held fast.
"Kinder slomped in thar when I war fishin'," she explained, "an' ther big rock dropped over thar an' cotched me fast when I tried ter pull out. That war nigh two hour ago, 'cordin' ter ther sun."