“Never mind,” said Mabel. “Shirley wouldn’t want you to feel badly about it. I know that.”
They turned and began to retrace their steps. It was then that Lois made a startling discovery. They had unconsciously walked further and further away from the water’s edge, in among a grove of trees.
“We are lost!” cried Lois.
“Lost!” echoed Mabel.
“Yes. I don’t know where we are. I have never been in these woods before.”
“Oh, I guess we’ll get out all right,” said Mabel confidently.
She moved forward, but in the darkness she had no means of telling whether she was going in the right direction. The girls walked quickly this way and that, but they could find no exit from the grove of trees.
Mabel raised her young voice in a cry for help, and Lois added hers to it.
From the distance came a faint response.
Encouraged, the girls renewed their efforts, and keeping it up, were finally rewarded by the sounds of footsteps coming toward them. A moment later the figure of a man appeared before them.