“we certainly are the prize simpletons,” said amy, in disgust, as she sank down upon a great rock and looked about her. “imagine getting lost in the woods—and at our age, too!”

“i think we must have been going about in circles for the last hour,” said nell, wearily. “this looks exactly like the spot we started from.”

“it is, my dear girl,” remarked darry, disgustedly. “we are getting nowhere with astonishing rapidity. i am just about ready to call it a day.”

“you will soon call it a night,” remarked burd, all his usual cheerfulness submerged in a deep gloom.

“oh, stop glooming,” cried jessie, and there was something in her voice that made them all look at her hopefully. she was fumbling in her pocket for something, and their curiosity grew.

“what you got there—a magic charm?” asked darry.

“better than that. it’s a compass.”

“a compass!” they cried, and the concerted sigh of relief was audible.

“why didn’t you tell us you had one?” reproached amy. “i have three gray hairs in my head from worry.”

“forgot i had it,” replied jessie, as she and darry studied the compass face. “i put it in my pocket the last minute thinking we might need it.”

“and, by cracky, you were right!” exclaimed fol.

after a good deal of figuring and discussion as to the probable direction of the rangers’ station and forest lodge, they concluded that if they followed the needle of the compass north they must eventually reach the main trail.

jessie kept the compass, and the others meekly followed her, thankful for that instinct of caution that had suggested the compass to her.

it took them some time to recover the ground they had lost, but their figuring proved to be correct and they came at last to the familiar rocky trail that led to forest lodge.

“look at that house over there,” said jessie, suddenly, pointing to a gray and dilapidated little shack, standing back among the trees. “i remember noticing it on our way out and thinking it was an unpleasant looking place.”

“looks like a fine joint for a murder,” observed burd, and amy uttered a shriek of protest.

“that is a nice thing to say, especially when we are still a long way from home,” she protested, adding with a shudder, as she glanced at the gloomy-looking house: “i declare, i am almost afraid to go past the place.”

“come, i will protect you,” announced burd, grinning, and linked an arm through amy’s. but amy was not in a mood to be protected. she jerked her arm away from burd and glared indignantly.

“i will go past that place without any help or i won’t go at all,” she declared, and burd’s grin grew broader.

“all right, but as you pass, all of you glance in the side window,” he said, and they looked at him in amazement.

of course no one meant to obey this command and of course every one did. it was amy who first discovered what burd meant.

“sheets!” she said, in a bewildered tone. “lots of sheets hung all over that room!” and they all drew closer to the hut.

“just like the morgue,” said burd. but when amy turned on him, he amended quickly: “maybe it’s a laundry for folks about the lake.”

“hey, what are you doing around here?” demanded a rough voice, and they turned, startled to see a man approaching them from the rear of the house. he was a surly-looking fellow with a week’s growth of beard on his face. “what are you doing here?” he demanded again. “don’t you know this is private ground?”

“we confess to ignorance on that point, stranger,” said darry, with a glint of amusement in his eyes. “we were not aware that we were trespassing.”

“well, you are!” growled the man, and his manner became more threatening. “and what’s more, we don’t want no strangers round here. you get out and stay out. understand?”

darry’s hands were clenched in anger and the other two boys were beginning to show fight, but the girls urged them onward.

“we don’t want any trouble,” said jessie, urgently, as darry seemed inclined to linger and settle with the ruffian then and there. “we don’t know what kind of people they are.”

“i can guess pretty well what kind they are!”

“but it is getting so late, darry. please.”

reluctantly darry yielded to her, and they went on, leaving the man glowering after them unpleasantly.

“surly ruffian. i would like to get my hands on him.”

“same here,” growled burd. “any one would think we were planning to rob his house.”

“looks more as though he were planning to rob ours,” said amy. “if ever i saw a villain, that fellow was it.”

“i wonder why he was so anxious to get us away?” mused jessie. “there must have been something about that house he was afraid to have us see.”

it was now fast getting dark, and the young folks were almost running along the narrow rocky trail. somehow, after their meeting with that surly fellow outside the shabby, mysterious hut, they wished less than ever to be overtaken by the dark when they were still far from forest lodge.

more than once jessie paused, ear tuned to listen, more than half fearing pursuit, and, hearing nothing but the noises of the forest, allowed darry to hurry her on again.

“we are almost there,” he assured her at the last of these uneasy pauses. “i recognize that great oak we just passed, and back there a little way i thought i saw the dock.”

“oh, darry, i will be so glad when we get home!” panted jessie, and, taking her hand to hurry her on, darry saw that she was trembling.

“why, i do believe you are frightened,” he said, in quick concern. “what are you afraid of, jess?”

“i don’t know,” she gasped, between quick-drawn breaths. “i sort of have a feeling that something terrible is going to happen. i can’t tell you what makes me feel that way. it is just silly, i suppose——”

“you are tired,” darry interrupted, kindly. “let’s not hurry so fast. we don’t have to, you know. we could find our way blindfolded from here on.”

“i would hate to try,” said jessie, trying to laugh. “probably we would end up by walking into the lake. oh, darry, where are the others?”

“right ahead of us. why, jess, what is the matter?”

“darry! listen! oh, what is that?”

from the direction of the marsh came a sound, eerie, moaning, rising to a terrible wail and dying off gradually into a throbbing silence. it came again and again.

jessie caught darry’s hand and ran wildly, blindly, toward the lodge.