CHAPTER XX

SEEKING A DESPERATE REVENGE

“Lie down!” bellowed Janus.

“Down!” commanded Miss Elting, in the same moment.

Janus moved more quickly than they ever had seen him do before.  They did not think him capable of such rapid action.

“Look out below!” he roared, as, with a series of rapid kicks, he sent the burning sticks of the campfire tumbling over the edge into the little ravine below the “Shelter.”

“Get out of the light!  Come up here as fast as ye can!  Into the hut with ye, every one!” Janus sprang from the rock and ran down the path toward Harriet and Jane.

“What’s the matter now?” demanded Jane, who did not understand.

“I don’t know,” answered Harriet, herself a little startled.  “I heard a gun fired twice.  Can it be that some one is shooting at us?  Oh, I hope not.  But we must get out of here!  Mr. Grubb, is that you?” she called, hearing some one floundering toward them.

“It’s Grubb.  Get out of that.”

“What has happened?” begged Harriet, hurrying to meet the guide, who came on a run to where they stood.

“Enough!  Did you hear the shots?”

“Yes.”

“Well, one of them snipped the lamp.  I’m greased from head to foot.  The scoundrel!”

“But—­but perhaps they were not intended for you, Mr. Grubb,” suggested Jane breathlessly.

“They were intended for me, all right.  No mistake about that, young ladies.  Now, I want you to get into that shack on the double quick.  I haven’t a rifle, but I have a revolver that’s good enough to take care of anything that gets close enough.  Don’t make too much noise; there might be another shot.”

“I think not, if we do not start any more fires.  I have an idea that the shots were intended for you, Mr. Grubb, not for us.  If so, the man will not shoot again in the dark, fearing to hit one of us.”

“Well, I swum!” grunted the guide.

Harriet’s guess seemed very plausible.  He led them quickly up the path, and, reaching the top, hurried them into the cabin.  Janus got his revolver, and, after loading it, slipped some extra cartridges into a pocket.  “I don’t want anybody to come out again to-night,” he ordered.  “You go to sleep, when you get ready, and I’ll sit outside to watch for the rascal in case he comes prowling around later.”

“Spread your blankets on the floor and sit down,” directed Miss Elting.  “I don’t think we are quite ready for bed yet.  We do not know but there may be more shots, though we aren’t going to be afraid, are we, girls?”

“No, we are not, Miss Elting.  Why should we be?  Being afraid doesn’t help us one little bit.”

So the girls seated themselves on their blankets, and in low tones talked over the series of mysterious occurrences that had marred an otherwise happy journey to the mountains.  They wondered what wrong their enemy might feel had been done him to make him thus vengeful.  The girls did quite believe that the man of the green goggles, Miss Elting’s caller, was either directly or indirectly concerned in the various mysteries, but that was as far as they could go toward a solution.