With hearts beating tumultuously, they burst out from the evergreen screen. But they had taken only two or three steps, when the cabin door opened a few inches, and four black rifle barrels were thrust out.
"Halte-là!" shouted one of the Canadians.
The boys stopped in their tracks. They could see nothing of the men within, nothing except those four ominous muzzles in the streak of firelight that shone through the crack.
"What do you mean?" cried Macgregor boldly. "Don't you know who we are? Put those guns away, and let us in!"
He ventured another step, but a second voice roared from the doorway, "Stop!"
It was Mitchell. Peter stopped suddenly. The hoarse voice bellowed again, "Git!"
"What's the matter with you?" Peter persisted. "That is our cabin. Let us come in, I say."
