The girls untangled themselves
from their blankets and sprang up very much frightened. Their nerves
were on edge after all they had experienced, and these shots, fired so
near at hand, had sent at least three of them to the verge of panic.
"Are we attacked?" cried Jane.
"We may be," answered Harriet. "Hurry and get yourselves together.
Some one besides ourselves is in the mountains and we must be ready for
whatever comes. I don't know what it is. Hurry, please! We may have
to leave here very suddenly."
No time was lost in "getting themselves together," as Harriet had
expressed it. Fortunately, having gone to bed with their clothing on,
there was little preparation to make. This completed, at Miss Elting's
direction the girls moved off in a body, secreting themselves in the
shadows some distance from the light of the campfire, but within sight
of it. Up to this time Harriet had made no explanation. Miss Elting,
after having placed the girls to her satisfaction, eagerly demanded to
know the meaning of Harriet's signals, the guardian not having heard
the other shots fired farther, down the mountainside.
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