At her suggestion, the dispirited party applied themselves to gathering fuel for a fire while there was still a little light. The Guardian’s patent anxiety that enough be secured to keep the fire going indefinitely, hinted at the dire possibility that they might have to remain on the island until late in the evening, perhaps all night. While the fuel was being brought, she and Marian took the pitcher, which Ruth had carried to the spring that morning, and went for water, guided only by a small flash light which the Guardian carried. The fire having been started in their absence, she went briskly to work to make coffee, insisting, in spite of forlorn pleas of non-hunger, that the remaining food in the packs should be eaten, reserving a portion against the return of the missing girls. All in all, it was a dolorous meal they managed to choke down, seated about the glowing Camp Fire. The coffee alone was welcomed. Tired out, as the girls were, it put a little new life into them. Seven, eight, nine o’clock came and went; yet Blue Wolf did not appear. Fortunately for them, their fear of a storm had not been verified. Conversation had long since languished among them, gradually dying out almost entirely. The very sound of their own voices oppressed them.
When at eleven o’clock there was still no sign of the guide, Miss Drexal said quietly: “It looks as though we are in for spending the night here. If Blue Wolf were to come now, we could not paddle back to the camp in the dark, even if we wished to, which, of course, we don’t. As it is, we shall have to keep the fire going, and sit around it until morning. We have no blankets, and it would be unwise to think of lying on the ground. It is too damp.”
An assenting murmur rose that quickly subsided into heavy silence. It was shattered by a stifled sob from Emmy. “I—can’t—help—it!” she cried out brokenly. “It’s—too—awful! Oh, Ruth, dear, where are—you?”
But only the voice of the night wind in the trees answered with a mournful sigh. Somewhere in the blackness behind them, the unyielding forest was jealously guarding its prey.
CHAPTER XX
CAUGHT IN THE DARK
Flung face downward on a rough, uneven floor of rock by that jarring explosive crash, oblivion descended briefly upon Ruth Garnier. Brought to consciousness by a sharp, stinging pain in her left wrist, her first impression was that she had suddenly been stricken blind. Though her eyes were open, all around her was impenetrable blackness. Where was she? What had happened? She essayed to move her left hand, and moaned with pain. Using her right, she groped feebly about in the Stygian dark, her limp fingers coming in contact with what seemed to be solid rock, she braced her hand against it and slowly raised herself to a sitting posture.
Gradually she began to remember. First of all, that reverberating crash, as though a cannon had been fired off within a few feet of her. And before that? Now it was all coming back to her. She had gone to look for Blanche. Then she had seen the opening in the rocks. She had stepped into it, and found Blanche hiding there. She had tried to make Blanche come away. Then something terrible had happened. But where was Blanche now? How her head ached!
Still too greatly bewildered to reason out what had befallen her, Ruth passed her uninjured hand across her forehead. It encountered a good-sized lump near her right temple. The mere touching of it made her wince. Next she felt gingerly of her left wrist. Pluckily continuing to examine it, despite the pain it gave her, she decided that it was sprained but not broken. She thought that she must have landed heavily upon it when she fell forward. This much clear, her mind again reverted to Blanche. They had been facing each other when that dreadful thundering roar had begun. Now it seemed she was alone in the darkness unless—
In the grip of a new fear, Ruth dropped to her knees. Feeling her way with her sound hand she crawled slowly about in a little circle, widening it as she went. She knew now that she was still in the cave; that she was not blind. It was the light of outdoors, not her own eyesight which had been mysteriously blotted out in a moment’s time. The entrance to the cave was undoubtedly blocked by some huge object, hence the impenetrable blackness.