Together she and Alice, admiring the orchid, advanced toward the two
children, who had come to a halt under a big sycamore.

Then, as Alice was about to call, she uttered an exclamation of terror.

"See!" she whispered hoarsely to Ruth. "That creature in the tree--right
over their heads, and it is crouching for a leap!"

Ruth looked and saw a tawny beast with laid-back ears and twitching tail,
stretched on a big limb a short distance above the ground, and right over
the two children, who were innocently prattling away, and looking at the
flowers they had gathered.




CHAPTER XVIII

THE ANIMATED LOGS


For a moment Alice and Ruth were almost paralyzed with fear. They stood
spellbound, and could only gaze horrifiedly at the tawny beast stretched
out on the limb of the tree.

"What--what shall we do?" asked Alice.

"What can we do?" Ruth returned. "If we move toward them, or call out,
the beast may spring on them. What is it--a tiger?"