I wouldn't hobble them at all, only I don't know where they might
stray in the dark. There may be holes in here--we don't know. I
don't want any of you to separate from the others while we are in
here."

"Don't you be afraid of that, Rhoda," said Grace Mason earnestly.
"I am clinging to Nan Sherwood's hand, and I wouldn't let go for a
farm!"

"As it happens, Gracie," said Bess Harley's voice, "you chance to
be hanging to my hand. But it is all right. I am just as good a
hanger as you are. I don't love the dark, either."

Nan herself felt that she would not be fearful in this place if it
had not been for the queer sound from the depths of the cave.
Whatever it was, when it was repeated, and the horses stamped and
whinnied as though in answer, Nan felt a fear of the unknown that
she could scarcely control.

"What do you think it is, Rhoda?" she whispered in the ranch girl's
ear. "It is so mournful and uncanny!"

"It's got me guessing," admitted the ranch girl. "I never heard
that there was anything up here in the hills to be afraid of. And I
don't believe it is anything that threatens us now. But I admit it
gives me the creeps every time I hear it."

On the other hand the roaring of the tornado was heard for more
than an hour after they entered the cave. They had come so far from
the mouth of the old bears' den that the sound of the elements was