"There's an orchid!" exclaimed Alice, as she pointed to a beautiful bloom, clinging to a tree. Seemingly it drew its nourishment from the air alone.
"How beautiful!" remarked Ruth. "I wonder if we could get it?"
"I can climb the tree," declared her sister. "I have on an old skirt. I'll get it."
She did, after some little difficulty, and as she was bringing it to Ruth, Alice looked through an opening between the trees, and exclaimed:
"Oh, there are Tommy and Nellie. They are after flowers too, for they each have a handful. But I must call to them. They should not wander too far away."
Together she and Alice, admiring the orchid, advanced toward the two children, who had come to a halt under a big sycamore.
Then, as Alice was about to call, she uttered an exclamation of terror.
"See!" she whispered hoarsely to Ruth. "That creature in the tree--right over their heads, and it is crouching for a leap!"
Ruth looked and saw a tawny beast with laid-back ears and twitching tail, stretched on a big limb a short distance above the ground, and right over the two children, who were innocently prattling away, and looking at the flowers they had gathered.
For a moment Alice and Ruth were almost paralyzed with fear. They stood spellbound, and could only gaze horrifiedly at the tawny beast stretched out on the limb of the tree.
"What can we do?" Ruth returned. "If we move toward them, or call out, the beast may spring on them. What is it--a tiger?"
"I don't know. Of course it's not a tiger, for there are none in this country except in circuses. Maybe it's a wildcat."
"Oh, they are terrible. But this doesn't look like the wildcat Flaming Arrow shot in the backwoods."
"No, it doesn't," agreed Alice. "But we must do something to save those children!"
Tommy and Nellie, all unconscious of their peril, were still sorting their blossoms beneath the tree.
"If we could only get them out of the way--somehow," urged Alice. "Then we might hurry off before the beast could spring."
"That's so. One of us had better go for help. You--you go, Alice. I--I'll stay here," faltered Ruth.
"What! Leave you alone with that beast? I will not!"
Alice thought for a moment. The animal in the tree had apparently not seen them--its attention was fixed on the two children. Then, as the girls watched, they saw it move slightly, while its tail twitched faster.