"But I'm all right as long as I sit still," her brother would reply. "Besides, the sooner you go and tell them at the hotel, the quicker they can send somebody up for me."
At length, convinced that under the circumstances this was the wisest thing to do, Amy set bravely out, but had not proceeded more than twenty feet before she came screaming back, declaring she had seen a snake, and that she could never, never go on through the dreadful woods alone.
"Let me stay with you, Flet," she begged. "I'm sure when papa misses us he'll come right up here;" and her brother, seeing she had no doubts on this point, thought it best not to remind her that it was just as natural to suppose that he would look in a dozen other directions for them first.
So the two sat together there on the mountain-side, watching the stars come out, and wondering if this was their punishment for being naughty.
But presently Amy's eyelids grew heavy again, and leaning her head against Fletcher, she asked him to wake her "as soon as papa comes," when suddenly a reddish glare flashed forth out of the darkness beneath them; portions of mountain and lake appeared distinctly as by day, while trees and rocks and bushes stood revealed in startling vividness.
"Oh, what is it, Flet?" cried Amy, hiding her face in terror.
"Don't be afraid," he answered. "I guess it can't hurt us, whatever it is."
Still the boy had dreadful visions of earthquakes and volcanoes, which he somehow imagined were much more common in Europe than in America.
And now the red light had changed to green, this in turn to blue, then back to red again, and so on, until the brother and sister became completely mystified.
On a sudden, while the red glare lit up everything around, there was a sound of rolling stones, a man's voice exclaimed, "Thank God for St. Jacques!" The next instant Mr. Hanway's strong arms were about both his children.