There was a noise behind her, and Phyllis felt a man's hand grope for hers. He pulled her quickly to her feet. "Close your eyes and keep your mouth shut," he ordered. "We will both be out of this in a moment." In one place the smoke was less dense and a faint breath of air penetrated the room. Phil felt herself lifted off her feet and thrust through this opening almost into Madge's arms. Her skirt was on fire, but Madge had beaten out the flames before Jimmy Lawton joined them. Even now the young man did not recognize his rescuers. He was dazed, weak from his long confinement, and only anxious to be off. "Let's get away from this place!" he cried. Blindly he reached out for Phil's hand the second time. Madge seized hold of Miss Jenny Ann. They started toward the thick woods on a run, forgetting their friend, Jeff. So far they had not been interrupted by the men they feared. "Look ahead!" called out Madge sharply under her breath. Her quick ears had caught the sound of footsteps approaching. "Hide in the thicket," Jimmy commanded. He pulled Phil down behind a fallen log. Madge and Miss Jenny Ann crouched behind some thick bushes. They waited in absolute silence. Now, for the first time, Lieutenant James Mandeville Lawton opened his eyes and surveyed his deliverer! He stared and blinked, and stared and blinked again, until Phil wanted to laugh aloud in spite of their danger, the young man's expression was so ludicrous. "Great Scott!" he muttered. "I never dreamed my rescuers were girls." Phil put a warning finger on her lips. They waited until the noise they had heard had completely died away. Then Lieutenant Lawton sprang to his feet, ran to Miss Jenny Ann and took both her hands. "Your appearing on this island is like a miracle!" he exclaimed. "Tell me how you happen to be here? I would never, never have let you run the risk of trying to save me if I had known you were girls instead of boys." Madge laughed. "Mr. Lawton, girls are equal, nowadays, to any situation that a boy can master." The little party had not gone on much farther before they heard the noise of swift feet in pursuit. Instead of walking, as our party of friends had lately done, in order to rest, they broke into a run. Still their pursuer gained on them. Lieutenant Lawton thrust the three women behind him. He stood at bay with a stick in his hand as his only weapon. A wild figure burst upon them. It was Jeff, whom they had forgotten! The poor lad's clothes were torn, as though he had received a severe beating. Jimmy Lawton dropped his stick. He turned red with shame. "Poor old Jeff!" he cried. "We ought never to have run off without you. Of course, you would get the blame of my escape." In the days of his imprisonment Jimmy Lawton had learned to understand a few words that the boy could spell on his fingers. Jeff now managed to explain to them that Lieutenant Lawton's jailers had returned to the house a little while after they made their escape.