“Listen,” exclaimed Elinor, “I hear the music again.” There came to them the sweet fairy notes of the zither.
“Halloo!” called Ben again and again, and presently the others joined in the chorus.
“What is it?” answered a voice quite near, and a figure bounded toward them through the mists.
“We have been lost,” answered Ben. “Do you think you could let these young ladies rest in your cabin while we get a vehicle and drive them home?”
“Yes,” answered the voice, and Billie then recognized the mountain girl who had sold them the blackberries that Mrs. Lupo had pitched out.
After a stiff climb up a rocky path, they reached
a little cabin.—Page 77.
“Come this way,” she added, and they presently realized they were on rising ground and that the morass with its glimmering will-o’-the-wisps and its floating veils of thin mist was now well below them. After a stiff climb up a rocky path they reached a little cabin built in a clearing, commanding a wide vista of the treacherous Table Top and the mountains beyond. At the door of the cabin sat the zither player, his hands traveling aimlessly over the strings while he listened to the approaching footsteps.
“Father,” called the girl, “visitors!”