"The dear things!" said Mrs. Armatage. "Your boy and girl are very kind, Mrs. Bunker. They want to relieve Mammy's trouble." "They have gone down there to-night to stick up those signs!" cried Mrs. Bunker, inspired by a new thought. "Well, I reckon nothing will hurt 'em," said her friend soothingly. "I'll tell Mr. Armatage and he will go down there and get them." This idea impressed both the men when they came back from their unsuccessful search of the house. The two men walked briskly along the trail to the burned cabin. The stars gave them light enough to see all about the clearing when they arrived. Not a sign of Russ or Rose did they find. "Do you suppose they went home some other way?" asked Daddy Bunker. "I don't know. I hope they haven't wandered into the thicket." As Mr. Armatage spoke both men heard the terrible scream that had first startled Russ and Rose. Mr. Bunker fairly jumped. "That can't be the children!" he ejaculated. The way his companion looked at him told the children's father a good deal. Mr. Bunker seized Mr. Armatage's arm. "Tell me! What is it?" he asked. "Something that hasn't been heard around here for years," said the planter, his voice trembling a little. "It's the cry of a panther." Mr. Bunker, although he was practically a city man, had hunted a good deal and had been in the wilder parts of the country very often. He knew how terribly dangerous a panther might be on occasion; but he likewise knew that ordinarily they would not attack human beings. Two little children lost in the woods in which a panther was roaming up and down was, however, a fearful thing. "Get a gun and the hands!" exclaimed Mr. Bunker. "If Russ and Rose have mistaken the way home, and are in that timber, they may be in peril." Mr. Armatage started off on a run for the quarters. He knew that some of his hands had guns, and the quarters were nearer than the big house. Daddy Bunker, although he was unarmed, started directly into the woods, trying to mark his course by the repeated screams of the hungry panther. He might have been lost himself, for there was not much light to mark the way; but Daddy Bunker could judge the situation of the screaming panther much better than Russ and Rose had been able to. He hurried on, gripping a good-sized club that he had found. But, of course, he knew better than to attack a panther with a club. He might throw the stick at the animal, however, and frighten it away. Russ and Rose had gone a long way into the thicket. The panther did not scream often. So Daddy Bunker did not make much progress in the right direction. By and by he had to stop and wait for help, or for the panther to scream again. He heard finally many voices at the edge of the thicket. Then he began to see the blaze of torches. A party of colored people--men and boys--with torches and guns, followed Mr. Armatage.