She piled pine upon them all night through until
the first faint gleams of dawn, and then there was no more wood on hand
to use.
She worried over the fact that the pine had given out and just as she
turned from the fires, having deposited the last small kindlings she
had found lying about, she heard the yelping of the mountain-lion and
the deep growl of a grizzly bear.
She ran and caught up the rifle, planning to shoot up at the cliff in a
venture to frighten them away. She aimed, pulled the trigger, and the
rifle-shot rang out making the echoes roar and roll through the chasm
as if an army was shooting.
The three girls who had been sleeping, jumped out of the spruce beds
and screamed with fright. Barbara ran madly over the ground, back and
forth, not certain where to hide. Eleanor stood shivering and Anne
rushed over to ask Polly what had happened. Polly explained in a
whisper, and Eleanor, as in a trance, watched her sister running about
with something that seemed to cleave to her foot closer than a porous-
plaster. Finally, Eleanor came to her senses and ran over to keep
Barbara from rolling under the burros for hiding.
"For the love of Mike! What's all over your foot?" cried Eleanor,
dragging Barbara out from the "finger-stall" to exhibit her foot to the
other girls.
At sound of the unexpected shot, Barbara had jumped up frantically and
darted hither and thither, taking little heed of where she ran.
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