"That's Kensy!" she cried, in relief. "Listen! Hear the twigs breaking? He is coming—maybe both. She whistled again, now more softly, and in her excitement tremulously. The sound of bending bushes and the cracking of dry branches was growing nearer.
"Hello, brother!" Mary suddenly cried out. "Here we are. Come on."
"Hello, sis! Who is with you—father?"
"No, Mr. Brown."
The sound of his movements ceased. "Who?" he asked, dubiously.
"Mr. Brown, you know. He is working for us. Come on. It is all right, Kensy."
"Oh!" Kenneth was heard ejaculating. "All right. Coast clear, sis?"
"Yes, yes, Kensy. We've got some food."
"Food, thank God! We are starving, sis. We haven't had a bite to eat since the night before we left home." With this he appeared from a clump of weeping willows, and stood before them. She introduced him to Charles. Kenneth simply nodded. He was coatless, without a hat, and besmeared with the dark mud of the morass from head to foot.
"I fell down back there," he said. "My foot slipped while I was on a log. I was wet, anyway. We were away from the cave, trying to kill some birds to eat, and got caught in the rain. Afraid to make a fire, anyway. No matches."