Then Teddy climbed silently out of the sunken creek channel, and started, low down on his chest, in the direction of the fire.
He had not made more than two hunches than Dolph noticed something. Why, Teddy had abruptly stopped. More than that, he was flattening himself out upon the ground as if the one object of his life just at that particular moment was to make himself seem as small as possible.
Now Dolph knew what this must signify. He hastily turned his troubled gaze in the direction of the smouldering camp fire and the sleepers, for only in that quarter could there possibly be any chance of interruption.
Had one of the men chosen to get up and stretch himself at this most inopportune moment? If so, then Teddy’s mission must of necessity be postponed.
What Dolph saw almost took his breath away, it was so entirely different from anything he had expected; and immediately his feeling of alarm and dismay gave way to one bordering on expectancy.
Someone was slowly and cautiously getting up near the half-dead fire; but it was neither of the rough men. On the contrary, he could see the slight figure of the girl, Sallie; and from the manner in which she peered at the recumbent figures of her father and Big Gabe, it was evident that she did not wish either of them to know of her action.
There was evidently about to be put upon the boards, a feature of the game that neither of the boys had counted upon entering. No wonder then Dolph held his breath, while Teddy raised his head much as a tortoise might protrude his from its shell, as their eyes remained glued upon the camp of the game poachers.
Sallie seemed a long time in getting up on her knees. All the while, too, she was keeping that watch upon the two men, as though the poor little heart might be throbbing like mad for fear lest one of them suddenly raise his head, and demand to know in gruff tones, why she was leaving her blanket at that hour.
There could be only one explanation of her suspicious actions, Dolph concluded; this was, that she had deliberately resolved to brave the wrath of Big Gabe as well as her own ruffianly father, and help Amos escape.
Dolph fairly held his breath with suspense when he grasped all that she seemed bent upon accomplishing. At the same time he was saying to himself in a whisper over and over again: