CHAPTER XXI
UNDER COVER OF NIGHT
SHE STOOD there gasping for breath, and unable to speak; and to both the others in the cabin it was evident that something startling had occurred. Dick Bracknell found his tongue first.
“What is the matter, Miss La Farge? What has happened?”
Babette found her breath and cried pantingly,
“Some one tried to kill me?”
“To kill you!” her listeners cried together incredulously.
“Yes. I was walking down the creek, wondering where Jim and our dogs were gone to, when I heard a sharp sound, just like the twang of a bowstring and looked round. I could see nothing, and the woods on the banks were quite still and silent, nothing moving anywhere. I was still looking, and convincing myself that I had imagined the sound when it occurred again, and a second later an arrow struck a tree close by me, and remained there, quivering. I did not remain to see any more, or to try and learn who had sent it. I turned in my tracks and ran back here, and once as I ran an arrow passed clean through my parka, and buried itself in the snow beyond.”