carry them into the moor."

"Hush!" said Hugh; "there's some one calling--it's Mother."

Outside the gorse-clump, at some little distance from us, we heard Mrs
Cottier and my aunt calling "Hugh!" and "Jim!" repeatedly. We lay very
still wondering what they would think, and hoping that they would make
no search for us. They could have tracked us in the snow quite easily,
but we knew very well they would never think of it, for they were both
shortsighted and ignorant of what the Red Indians do when they go
tracking. To our surprise their voices came nearer and nearer, till
they were at the edge of the clump, but on the side opposite to that
in which the rabbit-run opened. I whispered to Hugh to be quiet as
they stopped to call us. They lingered for several minutes, calling
every now and then, and talking to each other in between whiles. We
could hear every word of their conversation.

"It's very curious," said my aunt. "Where-ever can they have got to?
How provoking boys are!"

"It doesn't really matter," said Mims; "the officer has gone, and the
boy would only have been scared by all his questions. He might ha^e
frightened the boy out of his wits. I wonder where the young monkeys
have got to. They were going to build snow-huts, like the Indians.
Perhaps they're hiding in one now."

We were, had she only known it; Hugh and I grinned at each
other. Suddenly my aunt spoke again with a curious inflection in her
voice.