"But maybe he and Farmer Weeks are friends, Jack. Then he'd think it was all wrong, wouldn't he?" "My pop wouldn't have him for a friend, Bessie, don't you believe he would! My pop would never lock a girl up in a room by herself without her dinner, even if she'd been bad." "I wonder why they're so long coming back," said Bessie, finally. "Won't they miss you, Jack?" "Not if I get back in time for supper. They don't care what I do when it's a holiday, like this. They know I know my way around here, and there aren't any wild animals. I wish there were!" "Wouldn't you be afraid of them?" "Not a bit of it! I'd have a gun, and I'd shoot them, just as quick as quick!" "Even if they weren't trying to hurt you?" "Yes, why shouldn't I? Everyone does, in all the books." "But we don't act the way people in books do, Jack. We can't. Things aren't just that way. Books are to read, to learn things, and for fun, but we've got to remember that real life's different." "Well, I bet if I saw a lion coming through that wood there I'd kill him." "Suppose he ate you up first?" asked Zara. "He'd better not! My pop'd catch and make him sorry he ever did anything like that! Say, it is taking them a long time to come back. Maybe they've lost their way." "Could they around here?" "You bet they could! Lots of people do, from the hotel, and we have to send out and find them, so's they don't have to stay out all night. Say, did you hear something just then?" They listened attentively, and presently Zara keen ears detected a sound. "There's someone coming," she said. "Listen! You can hear them quite plainly now." They were quiet for a minute. "They must be quite close," said Zara, then. "We heard them much further off than that when they were coming after us. I wonder why they got so near before we heard them this time?" "That's easily explained, Zara," said Bessie. "When they were going the wind was behind them. Now it's in front of them. And they were going up hill, too, so there may have been an echo, because they were shouting toward the rocks upon the hill. Now that's changed, too." "Say, you're a regular scout!" said Jack approvingly. "_I_ knew all that, but I didn't suppose girls knew things like that. Say, when I get old enough I'm going to be a Boy Scout. That'll be fine, won't it? I'll have a uniform, and a badge, and everything." "Splendid, Jack! We're going to be Camp Fire Girls, and we'll have rings, and badges, too." "What are Camp Fire Girls? Are they like the Boy Scouts?" "Something like them, Jack. Sometime, when I know more about them, I'll come back and tell you all about it. I know it's nice--but I don't really know much more than that yet." Then they had to be still again, for the voices of the returning hunters were very plain. They could hear Farmer Weeks, loud and angry, in the lead. "Ain't it the beatin'est thing you ever heard of?" he was asking one of his companions. "How do you guess that little varmint ever got away?"