It was a half-smothered sob that reached their ears and seemed to come from a clump of bushes to the left of the road not more than a dozen yards away. Both girls started for the spot, circling around the bushes and peering carefully, cautiously ahead of them as they advanced. The subdued sobs continued and led the girls directly to the spot whence they came.
Presently they found themselves standing over the form of a little boy, his frightened, tear-stained face turned up toward them while he shrank back into the bushes as if fearing the approach of a fellow human being.
CHAPTER XI
MISS PERFUME INTERFERES.
The little fellow retreated into the bushes as far as he could get and crouched there in manifest terror. Katherine and Hazel spoke gently, sympathetically to him, but with no result, at first, except to frighten him still more, if possible.
"Don't be afraid, little boy," Hazel said, reaching out her hands toward him. "We won't hurt you."
But he only shrank back farther, putting up his hands before his face and crying, "Don't, don't!"
"What can be the matter with him?" said Hazel. "He doesn't seem to be demented. He's really afraid of something."
Katherine looked all around carefully through the trees and into the neighboring bushes.
"I can't imagine what it can be," she replied. "There's nothing in sight that could do him any harm. But, do you know, Hazel, I have an idea that may be worth considering. Suppose this should prove to be the little boy for whom we are looking."