Then followed Jim Bowles into the first cabin, where the woman had been waiting. She was not in sight now.
“Minnie!” called Jim, but there was no answer, and he left the house with an exclamation of annoyance.
The girls looked about them timidly. The strangeness and danger of their dilemma had made them silent. Mary clung to Elinor and Elinor pressed closely to Miss Campbell’s side, while Billie and Nancy kept their hands clasped together with that intimate grasp of two friends who need no words in which to express their feelings.
There were two rooms in the cabin. The first, a bedroom, and the back room a kitchen; and they were astonishingly clean and neat, considering the wildness of their occupants. No doubt this was due to Minnie, who now appeared, dark-eyed, handsome and defiant. She stood in the doorway, looking at them, half boldly and half timidly.
Then Miss Helen Campbell made what she considered afterward the effort of her life.
She walked straight up to Minnie and held out her hand.
“How do you do, my dear?” she said. “It’s very kind of you to take us into your nice little home. Shall we not be friends? I must introduce you to my four girls.”
She raised her heavenly blue eyes and gazed blandly into the girl’s fierce dark ones, taking Minnie’s limp hand into hers. Perhaps it had been many a day since a lady had spoken kindly to Minnie and treated her as an equal. At any rate, she melted completely.
“I’m glad you come,” she said, smiling broadly and showing two rows of even white teeth. “It’s awful lonely here sometimes when Jim’s away.” She looked across at Jim tenderly, and they all of them understood at once what it was that kept Minnie on this lonely mountain side.
It was not long before they were comfortably installed in Jim’s cabin. On the little stove in the back room bacon was sending out a pleasing aroma. Nancy was engaged in making an omelette. Elinor had charge of the tea, while Mary and Billie brought from the store of provisions in the Comet the best that it afforded in the way of jam, cheese and mixed pickles.