No answer came back.

“How provoking!” exclaimed Miss Elting.

“He has gone away and left us,” moaned Margery.

“Do you think he could have gone back to Jamesburg?” questioned Harriet.  “I believe he would if he dared.”

“He had better not.  I don’t see that there is anything to be afraid of except that we might pass by the camp, which, I understand is some little distance from this road.  Then again we must not get off the road or we are sure to lose our way.  All keep close together.  We will continue to walk on.  We will call him frequently.  I am certain that when he finds we are not keeping up with him, he will either return to see what has become of us or stop to wait.”

For a full half hour they continued on their way, stumbling, catching their feet in vines that had trailed across the road occasionally, bumping into trees, but never once wholly getting off the log road.  Now and then the call of a night bird fluttering from a tree near at hand, would send Margery and Tommy into a sudden panic.  There are many weird sounds to be heard in the forest at night.  It seemed as though the travelers heard them all.  Had their guardian not been with them, at least two of the girls would have been hysterical.  Harriet appeared undisturbed and Hazel held herself very well in hand.  But all at once there came a sudden interruption that threatened at the moment to send them all fleeing for safety.

Margery who was walking to one side of the road and slightly in advance of Miss Elting, uttered a piercing scream.  They heard her fall.

“Help, oh help!” cried Margery, terrified.

Harriet darted forward to her companion’s assistance.  She stumbled over something that moved and tried to push her aside.  Harriet thrust out both hands and grappled with the object.  She grasped a handful of hair.

“It’s an animal!” cried the girl, tugging with all her might.  “Quick!  Help!”

Miss Elting ran forward, now really alarmed, the frightened Tommy still clinging to her skirts.  Then came a voice, a male voice raised in angry protest.

“Leggo my whiskers, consarn ye!” it shouted.  “Leggo, I tell ye.  It’s Jasper.”

There followed a scuffle and a fall, as Jasper in trying to rise from the suit cases that he had been carrying, fell over them.  He landed on his back, shouting angrily.  Harriet sat down in the road overcome by a sudden weakness, then she laughed.  The other girls, now that the tension had snapped, were laughing also, all except Tommy who was so frightened that she could not say a word.

“Jasper, what do you mean by frightening us in this manner?” demanded Miss Elting severely.  “First, you run away from us then you frighten us nearly out of our wits.”

“Yaas.  Mebby ye think it’s fun to pull a man’s whiskers out when he ain’t looking.  I sot down here on them bags to rest.  I was waitin’ for ye to come up seein’ as I’d got ahead.  Then one of ’em had to come blundering along and fall over me.  Before I knowd what had hit me, the other—­I don’t know who she is in the dark—­lighted on my whiskers like a pesky mosquito,” complained the driver.