Without a word, she left the lady to whose arm she had been clinging, and making her way along behind bushes and underbrush, she managed to sneak in at the door of the hut, without having been seen by the party of boys. The lady, with whom she had been walking, supposed that she had run back to join her mother, while Mrs. Paxton felt quite undisturbed, because she believed that her little girl was still clinging to the arm of the lady with whom she had chosen to walk. It had required two barges to convey the party, and now they found them waiting, the horses a bit impatient to be off. The guests from the Merlington clambered into the first barge, and they with a few of the farmhouse party filled it to overflowing, some of the men being obliged to ride homeward, seated upon the steps. Meanwhile the Cleverton people were forced to wait until the barge for their party drove up. The first barge had started, and was rolling along, and a chorus of college songs was wafted back on the breeze, while handkerchiefs fluttered as the gay passengers laughed at the crowd that had not yet started. Mrs. Paxton paused with her foot on the step, and looked back. "Why, where's Floretta?" she asked. "In the first barge," cried a voice in reply. "Are you _sure_?" she asked. "Why, certainly," said the other, "she's with that tall, fine-looking lady from the Merlington. She'll be home before you are." The second barge was soon filled and on its way. The horses were less fresh than those of the first barge, and seemed determined to lag. Indeed, they required constant urging to keep them from dropping into a slow walk. "Those other fellows ahead of us started some lively college songs," said a disgusted passenger, "and they're actually out of sight now; but the way these nags are poking I couldn't think of anything to sing that would be slow enough to be appropriate." And while one barge was going over the road at a lively rate of speed, and the other jogging along at a snail's pace, Floretta, at the hut, was having a most exciting time. Once inside the place, she had crouched beneath a window to learn, if possible, what the boys were talking about. She had wanted to remain there when the party had started for the mountain path, and she had been very impatient during the long tramp. She cared nothing for the view, and determined, on the return, to stop, if only for a few moments, at the hut. CHAPTER VI THE ECHO CAPTURED FLORETTA had intended to hunt for treasure, hoping to get something more valuable than the brass button that her mother had found. She was not at all afraid of Jack Tiverton, but of those larger boys she was not quite sure. As she knelt beneath the window she could hear only the voices of the boys that were nearest to the hut, and hearing only parts of their conversation, she could not understand what the first speaker expected to find. "If I find it, I'll put it where it will be safe," he said.