The girl's freckled face was aglow. "Oh, goodie!" she cried. "I'd love to climb 'way up there." Then she asked, a little anxiously: "Aren't you skeered we might meet a wildcat or a lion or a bear?" Her small brother's courage was reassuring. "I hope we will. That's what! I'm a sharpshooter, I am, and the wildcat that meets us will wish he hadn't." Julie clung to his hand with a secure feeling that she was well protected. "Oh, look-it, will you?" Gerry pointed ahead and above. "There's a tree that has fallen right across our brook. That's a nice bridge and if we can get up there we can go across on it." "Is the rim-rock on the other side of our brook?" Julie inquired. Now Gerald had never climbed that high on their mountain before, and so he had no real knowledge of the exact location of the rock about which Dan had told them, but since it was on the very top, the small boy knew that if they kept on climbing, in time they would surely reach it. The fallen tree was lying across the brook at a very steep ascent and it was with great difficulty that Gerald boosted his sister to the narrow ledge on which it rested. "Don't be scared," he said. "I'll get you across all right and then we'll begin calling for Dan." CHAPTER XXIV. JULIE AND GERALD LOST It was nearly noon when Dan returned to the cabin. He gave a long whistle of astonishment when he saw the disordered living-room and heard no one about. Jane at once appeared in her doorway. Her face still showed evidence of her anger. "Dan," she said coldly, "my trunks are all packed. Please put out a flag or whatever you should do to stop the stage. It passes about one, does it not, on the way to Redfords?" The lad went to the girl with outstretched hands. "Jane, dear, what has happened? Have you and the children had more trouble? Is it so hard for you to love them and be patient with their playfulness? You know it is nothing more." The girl's lips curled scornfully. "Love them?" she repeated coldly. "I feel far more as if I hated them. I don't believe love is possible to me. I even hate myself! Dan, there's something all wrong with me, and I'm going back East to Merry, who is about the only person living who can understand me." There was an expression of tender rebuke in the gray eyes that were gazing at her. "You are wrong," the lad said seriously. "Father and I love you dearly, not only because we know that you are different from what you seem to be, but for Mother's sake." Then, turning and glancing again at the confusion, the lad said, "Tell me just what happened."