At noon they stopped for luncheon, then followed the same method as had Harriet, moving east and west, ever enlarging their field as the growth increased in area.  Night found them far up on the mountainside still facing the mystery of the disappearance of the guide, whom the girls earlier had named “The Pilot of the White Mountains.”

He was no longer a pilot, but in need of one.

It was not a particularly cheerful party of girls that sat down to a supper of rice, corn cakes and coffee that evening.  It was arranged that Harriet should take the early part of the night watch, Jane McCarthy the last half, for they dared not leave their camp unguarded.  A huge fire was built that sent a glow high above the foliage of bushes and second-growth trees, visible for a long distance.  This was done with a purpose.  The girls hoped that, were Janus within sight, he might see the light and be guided to them.  The blaze did serve to attract the attention of others whom the girls were to see before the night was ended.

Harriet’s vigil was not a lonely one to her.  She always found comfort in Nature, no matter how dark or silent Dame Nature’s mood might be.  She drew back a short distance from camp so that her moving about might not disturb her companions, remaining quiet until they had finally gone to sleep, after which she began strolling back and forth.

She had been on guard for something more than two hours when she was startled by three shots from somewhere lower down the mountain.  Harriet pointed her rifle into the air and promptly pulled the trigger twice.  Two heavy reports from her rifle caused an instant commotion in the camp of the Meadow-Brook Girls.  The girls untangled themselves from their blankets and sprang up very much frightened.  Their nerves were on edge after all they had experienced, and these shots, fired so near at hand, had sent at least three of them to the verge of panic.

“Are we attacked?” cried Jane.

“We may be,” answered Harriet.  “Hurry and get yourselves together.  Some one besides ourselves is in the mountains and we must be ready for whatever comes.  I don’t know what it is.  Hurry, please!  We may have to leave here very suddenly.”

No time was lost in “getting themselves together,” as Harriet had expressed it.  Fortunately, having gone to bed with their clothing on, there was little preparation to make.  This completed, at Miss Elting’s direction the girls moved off in a body, secreting themselves in the shadows some distance from the light of the campfire, but within sight of it.  Up to this time Harriet had made no explanation.  Miss Elting, after having placed the girls to her satisfaction, eagerly demanded to know the meaning of Harriet’s signals, the guardian not having heard the other shots fired farther, down the mountainside.

“I answered a signal,” replied Miss Burrell.

“Oh, then it is the guide?  It’s Janus!” cried Miss Elting joyously.