It was dark by the time the carriage appeared and Ran called out: "That you, Ashby?"
"Colonel Lewis and I," replied Ashby. "Are you all there, Ran?"
"I'm all here, but nobody else," returned Ran not meaning to be jocular.
"They haven't come?" Colonel Lewis asked making his way quickly to the spot.
"No, sir. Don't you think it would be a good plan to build a fire? They might see it, or they might see the smoke."
"If there is no danger of the woods catching we can do it."
"There's a big rocky place further on where I think it would be safe," Ran told him. "I have kept up a constant calling, but haven't heard a sound except from an owl."
To build the fire was the first step and Ashby was left to watch it while the other two set out, lanterns in hand, taking the direction in which the wanderers had disappeared. "I always carry a small compass," said Colonel Lewis, "and I have hunted in these mountains since I was a boy. We'll keep an eye on the smoke and then if we can only find those children, I shall have no fears about our getting back to the fire. You're not afraid, Ashby?" he called back.
"Keep up a good fire and a good heart," called Ran.
"All right, I will," and little Ashby had his turn of loneliness. It must be confessed that he did feel a sinking of heart as he saw the two disappear into the darkness of the forest.
Darker, more lonesome, more awful did that forest seem to the two children who, wearied at last from unsuccessful attempts to find their way back, sat down upon a log to rest. "It's no use trying any more," said Phil. "We're tuckered out and we can't see a yard ahead of us anyhow. It wasn't right for me to bring you way off here, Mary Lee, and I wish I hadn't done it."
"It wasn't your fault any more than mine," said she. "We both started to follow the squirrel."
"Yes, but I said I wanted to try to catch a young one, and so you went to accommodate me. If I hadn't said that you wouldn't have gone."
"We might have gone after something else just the same," said the girl. "It is awfully dark, isn't it, Phil?"
"Father always carries a compass." Phil was busy with his own thoughts. "I wish we knew the direction we came, then I could find the North star and go by that."