“Horrid creature!” murmured Natalie, and they hurried on in silence. “Are you sure we came this way?” “Where are some of those hairpin-blazed trees?” “I don’t remember this road.” “And I’m sure we never passed this pile of rocks!” The Camp Fire Girls came to a halt and looked at one another. It was growing dusk, and they had been walking away from Bear Pond for perhaps half an hour. They thought they would soon be at the cove where they had left their boats, but when Mabel propounded that question, it raised doubts in all their minds. “I think this is the way,” said Mabel. “Can’t you be sure?” asked Mrs. Bonnell, a bit testily. “Well, it looks just like it, but why don’t we see some of the trees you scratched?” “That’s what I want to know,” put in Natalie. “Let’s sit down and rest. Then we can think better.” She fairly “slumped” down on the grass. “It’s damp there,” warned Mrs. Bonnell. “I can’t help it—I’m dead tired!” Marie walked off a little way. She went forward on the path, and then retraced her steps. When she rejoined her now silent chums there was the flush of anxiety on her cheeks. “I—I don’t seem to remember this place,” she began. “I guess we must have taken the wrong turn some time ago. Let’s go back until we come to two paths, and then take the other.” They retraced their steps, no one speaking much. But they came to no divergence of the path. It seemed to lead endlessly on through the woods, as though generations of patient cows had plodded their way along it. Marie who was in the advance, halted. “Girls,” she said in a broken voice, “I—I don’t see any use in keeping on. We’re only getting more and more tangled.” “Are we—lost?” asked Natalie in hesitating tones. “I—I’m afraid so,” answered Marie. CHAPTER XIV A NIGHT MARCH “We must keep on!” “Yes, we can’t stay here in this lonesome place!” “Oh, if we could only see some house—and ask our way.” “I believe it’s going to rain—I felt a drop on my nose.” “Are you sure it wasn’t a tear, Natalie?” Thus talked the Camp Fire Girls as they gathered in a group after Marie had admitted the dismal failure to lead the way back from Bear Pond. “No, though I do feel badly enough to cry,” answered breath-of-the-pine-tree. “It’s really raining!” “It can’t melt us,” declared Alice. “I only hope it doesn’t thunder and lightning.” “It won’t be that kind of a storm at all,” was Mrs. Bonnell’s opinion. “It’s going to turn into a miserable drizzle.” “My hair always curls in the wet,” cried Marie. “That’s one consolation, anyhow.” “You poor girl!” came from Alice. “Really it’s no one’s fault that we got lost,” for Marie appeared to think that she bore the responsibility of leading her forces thus into _terra incognita_.