Both were sleeping soundly, and she looked at them for a few minutes with feelings of commiseration.
"They are tired out and wearied," she murmured; "they will need sleep, and I will let them be until I return."
Very carefully she came down from among the rocks, and advancing to the edge of the creek bathed herself in it. The water was so cool and refreshing that she plashed her hands it for several minutes.
No thought of danger entered her head, as she believed the place so secluded that there was scarcely a possibility of their being disturbed by the foes they dreaded so much. Had she known what her friends had seen during the previous night, she would have been more careful in her movements.
She was about a hundred yards from where the men were sleeping, and sat down on the mossy bank of the stream for a few minutes to enjoy a slight breeze that was fanning her face and that made music among the rustling leaves.
The sky was clear, and the sunlight penetrated the woods with its revivifying influence; but for the disappearance of her uncle she would have been in the best of spirits. The cabin had been swept away, but she and the two men had escaped with their lives, and to her, it seemed that scarcely any danger had passed.
She had sat thus some ten minutes or thereabouts, when a crackling of the bushes across the stream caused her to raise her head, and she caught sight of what appeared to be a large black bear.
It was only a partial glimpse that she obtained, and the animal seemed to be going away from her further into the wood.
"I guess he hasn't seen me," she concluded, as something warned her that she had already remained away from the cavern too long.
So she concluded to wait a few minutes longer, as she felt a reluctance to awake the hunters, who so badly needed sleep.