She sat absolutely still with every nerve tense, feeling chilly and scared.
At last she could stand it no longer and, leaning over, touched Laura gently on the arm.
"What's the matter?" cried the latter, starting up fearfully. At the same moment Billie opened her eyes.
"That noise!" whispered Violet. "Listen!"
CHAPTER XVII
ONLY A BAT
The three girls sat quiet, every nerve tense, that same chilly sensation creeping up their spines, and their hair beginning to stand on end.
Out there in that wilderness, at three o'clock in the morning, a noise that sounded something like a motor car and yet was unlike anything they had ever heard before, might have frightened more experienced people than three fourteen-year-old girls.
"H-here it comes!" whispered Violet, clutching at Laura's arm, while Laura in her turn clutched at Billie's. "It's coming closer! Oh, girls—is it in the house?"
"Sh!" cried Billie. "It's a machine—it must be a machine—out on the road."