“But where is the house?” cried Grace in a voice that was almost a wail. “Trees may be all very well, but I never heard of one keeping the rain off.”
“Look here!” called Betty. As usual she was the first to regain her wits. Going forward and looking around, she discovered what was hidden from the other girls where they stood, and the discovery filled her with dismay.
“Ashes,” she explained, as the girls hurried over to her. “I guess there’s no doubt but what this is the place all right. And probably the shack stood here once.”
“Burned down!” said Mollie, in a low voice. “Oh, Betty, now what are we going to do?”
And she might well ask the question. Except for the tell-tale ashes, no one would have known that there had ever been a cabin on that spot. The blaze which had consumed it had destroyed every timber. All that remained intact--and these were blackened and tarnished by the fire--were some pieces of metal which had probably been door hinges. Even the ashes looked as if they were not too recent. They were sodden and beaten into the soft earth as though by a terrific torrent of rain. There was a desolate look about the whole place, a depressing smell of burned wood lingered in the air.
Well might Mollie ask: “What are we going to do now?”
“I don’t know,” admitted Betty in reply to the question. But the next moment she had rallied and spoke in her ordinary voice.
“It’s hard luck, of course,” she said, “but after all it’s nothing to cry about. We’ll have to put up a tent, that’s all.”
“But we haven’t any,” protested Amy. “You know we didn’t bring any with us.”
“And we can’t stay in this forsaken place, without some sort of shelter,” added Grace, looking up anxiously to where the sky shone grayly through the trees. “Oh, girls, I think this is awful.”
“Well, what do you want to do about it?” asked the Little Captain, exasperated into losing her patience. “Do you want to go home and confess that you were stumped by the first little obstacle you found in your way? That would be fine for the Outdoor Girls, I must say.”
“No, of course we don’t want to do any such thing,” said Mollie, stoutly. “We’ll stay and face it out some way. Although I must say,” she could not help adding, “that I don’t see how it’s to be done.”