before they came in sight of the lake, when, at a crossing of the trail,
a glad cry hailed them and a sturdy guide stepped across their path.

"Well, I'll be hornswoggled!" he exclaimed. "Ain't you the two that was
lost, or stolen by that gypsy critter?"

"We certainly are," said Dolly and Bessie, in one breath. "Were you
looking for us?"

"Lookin' fer you!" he exclaimed. "Every one in these here woods has been
a-lookin' fer you two since sun-up, I guess. Godfrey, but we was scared!
Didn't know but that there gypsy might have sneaked you clean out of
the woods! How did you all ever come to get loose? Or was you just plain
lost?"

"No, we weren't lost," said Bessie. "He carried Dolly off all right;
this is Dolly Ransom, you know. But he didn't catch me."

"Then how in tarnation did you come to be lost, too? You was, wasn't
you? They told us two girls was missin'."

"Well, we were asleep in the open air, outside the tent, and I woke up
just as he was carrying Dolly off. I didn't wake up until he'd got out
of the firelight, and there wasn't any use calling anyone else. So I
just followed myself."

"She says anyone would have done it," Dolly broke in, her eyes shining.
"But I don't believe it, do you?"

"No, by Godfrey!" he said, emphatically. "A greenhorn, goin' out in them