Sallie seemed a long time in getting up on her knees. All the while, too, she was keeping that watch upon the two men, as though the poor little heart might be throbbing like mad for fear lest one of them suddenly raise his head, and demand to know in gruff tones, why she was leaving her blanket at that hour.
There could be only one explanation of her suspicious actions, Dolph concluded; this was, that she had deliberately resolved to brave the wrath of Big Gabe as well as her own ruffianly father, and help Amos escape.
Dolph fairly held his breath with suspense when he grasped all that she seemed bent upon accomplishing. At the same time he was saying to himself in a whisper over and over again:
“Good for you, Sallie! Bulliest little girl I ever saw; don’t this beat all, though!”
Sallie was now creeping away from her blanket. She certainly headed straight for the spot where Amos was lying.
Turning his eyes in that direction Dolph saw the prisoner raise his head. He seemed to be intently watching the silent advance of the girl, as though, bound as he was, Amos understood what Sallie meant to do.
Something glittered in the hand of the child, as a tongue of flame licked up a small bit of fuel that had dropped into the fire when a log partly turned over. Dolph quickly guessed that it must be a knife, though just where Sallie could have obtained the same he could not imagine.
Here was a situation, dramatic enough to please the most critical.
No wonder, then, that the two boys hardly dared to breathe properly as they watched the slow advance of the child of the lawless former mink trapper, and now game poacher. No wonder Dolph, yes, and Teddy too, blessed her mentally over and over, as she thus took her courage in both hands and dared the wrath of the two rough men. She evidently fully determined to assist the lad who had found the way to her poor little heart through the fairy touch of his bow on the strings of the old fiddle.