Show t THEY HEARD A NOISE The Young Women Were Sure It was a Panther Supper wits over The camp lire had nearl > died out even as had the desultory conversation of the outing party > Tit autocrat arose from his sent on tin old log and yawned audibly Clearly his lent story had not Interested Inter-ested the crowd and ho had sat In silence pondering over It until ho hud begun to get drowsy Now Mia Chaperon ho said languidly lan-guidly If you ladles are a trifle tired wo will excuse you from this nocturnal visitation we Intend making on the finny tribe You may stay here and watch tho camp and wo men folks will hike for he creek Ulllys asleep over there in the hammock so We will leave htm as your silent sentinel I dont believe be-lieve anything will disturb you however how-ever 0 Wo are not the least bit afraid Take Hilly with you i hes get tiitgirspI = t nillyfoyor In the hammock blinked blink-ed XSButtMlly then knocked tho Ashes > front lies pipe on the tree behind him Yes Ill go he said arising I Never did have any luck loafing where J wasnt wanted So the men strolled off toward the creek a quarter of a mile away and the feminine side of camp life soon was much In evidence The ladles now In more comfortable negligee chatted quietly by the fireside Somehow Some-how they were not iis gay as usual Still they wore not sleepy everyone seemed just to enjoy her own particular particu-lar mood and was very thoughtful and generally silent Away up above them a full moon shone down through the sturdy pines Off In the distance they coTild l 1 hear the monotonous roar of the little cataract down on the stream and Intermittently the cry of the hounds arose from far across tho creek where they were trailing a fox or perhaps an elusive deer Except Ex-cept for these sounds nil was very quiet and tlmo passed slowly Somehow Some-how It was lonesome I leanette gazing dreamily into tho fire with chin resting upon her hands suddenly sat upright Listen she said What Is it dear asked Mrs Chaperon Chap-eron 1 heard the awfullest thing just now There It Is again I Its coming com-ing toward usA us-A deep reverberating noise half growl half roar seemed to 1111 the little lit-tle valley echoing from bluff and bluff Its a catamount exclaimed Iea triceOh Oh Isnt It terrible I know Its coming here said Augusta Me for the tent Build a big fire complacently remarked the matterof fact Alice No wehad better go down toward the creek and call the men said Mrs Chaperon Mr Adams can shoot the panther He took the gun with him But the creature is down there somewhere I heard it mourned Jeanette tearfully I wouldnt go through those dark woods for all the money in the world Nonsense Jeanette urged Mrs Chaperon We cant stay here Get a lantern and come quickly I Animals will not attack a light Ten minutes later the midnight fishermen fish-ermen were surprised by five young women crashing through the underbrush under-brush toward the creek bank hallooing halloo-ing at every step their hair disheveled dishev-eled their clothing torn and their hands and faces scratched by the branches Three of tho five carried lanterns Whats the matter called the Incorrigible In-corrigible Billy from a limb that hung out over the stream Whats the matter lost something He sat non chalently pulling away at a pipe his big straw hat pulled down over his ears and his line and pole both dangling dang-ling carelessly In the darkrippling water Hello Whats up1 shouted the autocrat au-tocrat further up stream Wwe heard a cata catamount IIts after us chattered Jeanette e All were silent From down the creek came the name deep roaring growl echoing weirdly over the quiet water and on the night wind Billy laughed cheerfully Thats a bullfrog he said Girls run for your lives |