Whereupon he led Bo, very much as if he were teaching a child to walk. The fact that the voluble Bo had nothing to say was significant to Helen, who was following, with the assistance of Roy.
One of the huge rocks resembled a sea-shell in that it contained a hollow over which the wide-spreading shelf flared out. It reached toward branches of great pines. A spring burst from a crack in the solid rock. The campfire blazed under a pine, and the blue column of smoke rose just in front of the shelving rock. Packs were lying on the grass and some of them were open. There were no signs here of a permanent habitation of the hunter. But farther on were other huge rocks, leaning, cracked, and forming caverns, some of which perhaps he utilized.
“My camp is just back,” said Dale, as if he had read Helen's mind. “To-morrow we'll fix up comfortable-like round here for you girls.”
Helen and Bo were made as easy as blankets and saddles could make them, and the men went about their tasks.
“Nell--isn't this--a dream?” murmured Bo.
“No, child. It's real--terribly real,” replied Helen. “Now that we're here--with that awful ride over--we can think.”
“It's so pretty--here,” yawned Bo. “I'd just as lief Uncle Al didn't find us very soon.”
“Bo! He's a sick man. Think what the worry will be to him.”
“I'll bet if he knows Dale he won't be so worried.”
“Pooh! What difference does that make?... Oh, I don't know which I am--hungrier or tireder!”
“I couldn't eat to-night,” said Helen, wearily.
When she stretched out she had a vague, delicious sensation that that was the end of Helen Rayner, and she was glad. Above her, through the lacy, fernlike pine-needles, she saw blue sky and a pale star just showing. Twilight was stealing down swiftly. The silence was beautiful, seemingly undisturbed by the soft, silky, dreamy fall of water. Helen closed her eyes, ready for sleep, with the physical commotion within her body gradually yielding. In some places her bones felt as if they had come out through her flesh; in others throbbed deep-seated aches; her muscles appeared slowly to subside, to relax, with the quivering twinges ceasing one by one; through muscle and bone, through all her body, pulsed a burning current.