As she opened her eyes she glanced down to the spot of golden moonlight on the grass. The rabbits had returned to complete their frolic.
“Time to try it,” she whispered as she drew herself up on her knees.
CHAPTER II
STRANGE SENTRIES
“Thanks, jolly little friends,” she whispered to the rabbits. “Sorry to disturb you, but it really has to be done.”
Clutching at her heart in a vain effort to still its wild beating, she slid slowly out of the window. A gripping of the beams, a swinging down, a second of clinging, a sudden drop, a prayer of thanksgiving that her alighting place was grass cushioned and noiseless, and the next instant she was lost from sight in the brush whither the three rabbits had fled.
For a full moment she crouched there motionless, scarcely breathing, listening intently.
There came no sound. Her guard was dozing in his chair.
Her mind was in a whirl. Now that she was free, where should she go? Where could she go? Home, if she could find the way, or to Everett Faucet’s cabin. Everett lived at the back of the mountain.
Yes, she might go to either place if only she knew the way. Truth was, she didn’t know the way. She had been carried about on horseback by her mysterious captors, covering strange trails, and at night. She was lost. Only one thing she knew—she was still on the back of Pine Mountain. The way home led up this side of the mountain and down the other.
A great wave of fear and despair swept over her. The whole affair, she told herself, was a useless adventure.