"In the tin dish just as it came from the oven!" added Eleanor,
laughing.
"Not quite like it was when it came from the oven, for such a shaken up
mess of meringue and custard we never had at _our_ table!" laughed
Polly, seeing the condition of the pie from the shaking and falling it
had had when Choko went over the cliff.
"Any one want a slab?" asked Anne, laughing also.
"No, thanks! Maybe, if I was famished, I'd eat the crust, but it
doesn't appeal to me now!" said Polly.
"Well, I say, keep it until to-morrow! We may be glad to eat it in the
morning if we are very hungry! It won't hurt to save it, anyway!" said
sensible Eleanor.
So Anne sat the pie-plate down where she was, intending to put it on
the ledge when she got up from supper.
"Reckon I'll put some more pine on the fires!" said Polly, seeing the
flames were dying down.
She had raked up and replenished one fire, and was attending to the
other when a blood-curdling cry came from the edge of the cliff,
causing Polly to jump back and clutch at Anne's arm.
"Mercy! How that frightened me!" said Polly, trying to laugh her fears
away.
The other girls were trembling too, and Anne said, "It was a wolf,
wasn't it?"
"No, it was the cry of a panther! They wait and wait in quiet for a
long time to get a chance at their prey, then if something interferes,
they make that awful cry!"
"Oh, Polly! Can he get in, do you think?" wailed Barbara.
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