A moment’s rest, and they were away along the trail that followed the ridge for some distance.
They marched along in silence until they came to the spot where the trail left the ridge to plunge down the steep slope on the other side.
“Listen!” Patience whispered, suddenly gripping her companion’s arm.
As they listened, breathless, from somewhere far below there came the deep, drawn-out bay of a hound.
“See!” exclaimed the mountain girl, pointing to the ground. Where the trail left the ridge, a fresh track had joined that of the kidnappers. It was the trail of a man and two huge dogs.
“Hounds!” whispered Patience. “They have hounds. Against these we have no chance. They will smell us a long way off. They will come after us. I can shoot but one. The other—” she paused to shudder.
“And yet we must go on! Think of little Hallie!”
“Yes,” said the brave mountain girl, “we must go on!” Turning, she led the way down the mountain.
CHAPTER XV
BY THE AID OF A COON
Climbing up the mountain side without making a sound had not been easy. Going down it was doubly difficult. Now a rock, slipping from a ledge at the side of the trail, went crashing down through the sloping forest. Now a pebble, rolling beneath Marion’s foot, sent her with a thud to the ground. And now the dead branch of a tree, clung to for a second’s rest, gave way with a screaming snap that must have been heard a mile away.