“I am going to carry you a ways, Miss Ruth,” he said, “if you don’t mind.  You see, I must walk in the stream or they will find this entrance to my hide-out.”

“But—­can you carry me?”

“I bet you!  If you only wore rubber boots I’d let you walk.  Come on, please.”

“Oh!  I am not afraid,” she told him, quietly, and allowed him to take her into his arms after he had stepped down into the shallow, swiftly lowing current.

“This water-trail confuses men and dogs completely,” said Jerry, with a laugh.  “That is—­such men as Lem Daggett.  If I was hunting a fellow who took to the stream, with the water so shallow, I’d find which way he went in a jiffy.”

“How would you?” demanded Ruth, feeling perfectly secure in the strong arms of the young fellow.

“That’s telling,” chuckled Jerry.  “Mebbe—­some time—­I’ll tell you.  I hoped I’d get the chance of showing you and your friends around this island.  But I guess I won’t.”

“Perhaps you will.  And if there is anything we can do to help you——­”

“Just one thing you might do,” remarked Jerry, finally setting her upright upon a flat rock on the side of the stream nearest the hunting camp, and some distance away from the secret entrance to his hide-out.

“Oh! what is that?” cried Ruth, eagerly.

“Find me a pickax, or a mattock, and put it right here on this rock.  Do it at night, so no one will see you.  Good bye, Miss!” he exclaimed, and hurried away.

In another minute he had disappeared behind the screen of bushes, and Ruth heard the glad shouts of her friends as they came over the ridge and saw her standing safe and sound beside the stream.

CHAPTER XVII

CHRISTMAS MORNING

“How under the sun did you get here, Ruth?” Helen shouted the moment she saw her chum.

“Did that Jerry Sheming bring you?” demanded Ann.

The other members of the party were quite as anxious to learn the particulars of her adventure, and when they had crossed on the stepping stones, they gathered about her eagerly.

Ruth would tell just so much and no more.  She explained how she had fallen into the snow-drift at the foot of the cliff, how Jerry had heard her scream and pulled her out.  But beyond that she only said he had left her here to wait their coming.

“You needn’t be so mysterious, Miss!” ejaculated Helen, rather piqued.

“I guess she doesn’t want to say anything about his hide-out that might lead to his being hunted out by Lem Daggett,” observed the wise Tom.  “But Jerry signed his name to the note he tied on the arrow.”

“And we sure were surprised when we saw that arrow shoot up from the depths,” said Isadore.

“What do you suppose mother will say?” cried one of the Tingley boys.

“Don’t let’s tell her,” suggested Ruth, quickly.  “There’s no need.  It will only add to her worries and she will be troubled enough by us as it is.”