Barbara, Grace and Ruth stared at each other with white, frightened faces. They remembered Mollie had gone off for a walk early that morning; but she had promised not to go far up the hill.
“Call Naki, at once,” said Miss Stuart hurriedly. “He will probably know where Mollie is.”
“No, auntie.” Ruth shook her head. “Naki doesn’t know. He has been teaching us to shoot all the forenoon.”
Bab jumped up from the table. “Please, Miss Sallie,” she cried hastily, “may Naki and I go out to look for Mollie? I am afraid she is lost on the hill.”
“Sit down, Bab,” quietly said Miss Sallie, in the voice the girls recognized as final. “You and the other girls must each eat a plate of this soup. You are not to start out to look for Mollie when you are tired and hungry. Ceally, see that Naki has some food at once, and bring the coffee to me.”
Barbara was almost crying. “Oh, Miss Sallie,” she pleaded, “I can’t eat. Don’t make me wait. I must go at once.”
“Eat your soup, Barbara,” was Miss Sallie’s reply.
Poor Bab obediently choked it down, while Ruth and Grace followed her example. Then they each drank a cup of coffee.
It was Miss Sallie who ate nothing. She was more frightened than the girls; for the woods were more terrible to her than to the young people. Then, Mollie was the youngest of the party, and Miss Stuart felt she was less able to look after herself. Besides, Ceally had hinted strange tales of the haunted mountain back of them. At the time, Miss Sallie had refused to listen; it had seemed utter nonsense, that tale of a ghost which haunted a lost Indian trail. Now, the idea came to Miss Stuart, that perhaps the ghost on the mountain was some criminal, a fugitive from justice, who made his home on the deserted hill.
It was Bab who led the way up to the top of the ravine. But there she stopped and waited for Naki and the girls to join her.