When Grace and Naki had finally disappeared Bab put her head down on Ruth’s shoulder and cried bitterly.

“I am so frightened!” she sobbed. “If only I were lost instead of my little sister! Mother always trusts me to look after Mollie. I ought not to have let her go off alone!”

Ruth wisely allowed Bab to have her cry out, before she said: “Bab, dear, remember father said he relied on us to keep cool heads and strong hearts in any case of emergency. Now let’s gather ourselves together. Let’s say over and over again: ‘We will find Mollie! We will find Mollie!’”

Bab braced up at once and repeated quietly, “Certainly we will find her, Ruth dear.”

Both girls were looking toward the woods. It was not yet night, but the dusk was falling quickly. Suddenly, off through the trees, the two girls distinctly saw a light that shone on a level with their eyes. Once, twice, then again, it sparkled through the underbrush.

“What is it?” Bab breathed faintly.

Ruth shook her head. “I don’t know,” she answered, under her breath.

The light advanced toward them; then it drew back again, never ceasing to sparkle. It seemed to be beckoning to them.

“Oh, Ruth,” cried Barbara, “could it be a signal from Mollie?”

“How could it, Barbara, dear?” Ruth replied.

Both girls waited a little longer. The light came again. It seemed almost to call to them. Barbara started to her feet impatiently. “I must go and see what it is,” she declared.

“Wait a minute, Bab!” pleaded Ruth. It was second nature with Ruth to be ready for emergencies. Rapidly she tore from a pad in her leather knapsack a sheet of paper and wrote on it: “Bab and I are going into the woods at the left. Follow the trail of the paper I shall drop as we walk.”

Like a flash she pulled off her white petticoat, and tied it to a bush near the place where she and Bab had been sitting. The skirt fluttered and swung in the breeze. Beneath it, under a small stone, Ruth placed her note.

“Come on, Bab!” she cried. “Let’s be off!”

Barbara bounded ahead; Ruth closely followed, leaving behind her a trail of white paper which she tore into bits as she ran.

The light ahead of the two girls beckoned them deeper and deeper into the forests. They must have followed it for more than a mile. Ruth’s paper was giving out. Suddenly the light dipped to the ground and was gone!

At the same moment, Ruth and Barbara heard a sizzling crackling noise. A tongue of flame darted up between two distant trees, and a warm glow like that of a camp fire lit up the shadows of the forest.

Ruth and Bab rushed to the spot. In the center of a small open space some one had lighted a fire. Sitting on a bank of autumn leaves, slowly rubbing her eyes was a girl. A scarlet coat caught Bab’s eyes; then a tangle of yellow curls.

“It’s my Mollie!” she cried, springing toward her and gathering her in her arms.

“Why, Bab,” asked Mollie sleepily, “when did you and Ruth find me? I must have been dreaming. I did not hear you make the fire. How did you happen to light a fire before you awakened me?”

The girls stared at Mollie. “Build a fire?” they queried in amazement. “Surely, Mollie, you made the fire yourself.”

Mollie shook her head. “How could I possibly light a fire?” she inquired. “I haven’t a match.” Then she smiled faintly. “I am not enough of an ‘early settler’ to know how to make a light by striking two flints together. But please take me home.” The little girl was too tired to care about anything beyond the blessed fact that she had been found.

It was Bab and Ruth who were overcome with the mystery of the dancing light that led them through the forest straight to Mollie. And who could have started the fire, that now roared and blazed, lighting the woods with its many tongues of flame. What did it all mean? The mystery of it all gave them long, creepy thrills.

Barbara helped Mollie to her feet. The child was so stiff she could hardly move, but as she arose something red dropped to the ground. Ruth picked it up. “Why, it is Grace’s sweater!” she exclaimed. “I am so glad you found it, Mollie, before you went for your walk. What a blessed thing you had it to keep you warm!”

“Grace’s sweater! What are you talking about, Ruth? I didn’t have it with me. I was nearly frozen. You or Bab must have brought it with you. I found it over my shoulders when I awoke,” protested Mollie.

Ruth and Bab said nothing. There was nothing to be said. It was all a puzzle! Where was the clue to the mystery?

The two girls were leading poor, tired Mollie through the thick tangle of shrubs, along which Ruth’s bits of torn paper gleamed white and cheerful pointing their pathway home. Even Mollie smiled on seeing them.

“If only I had remembered to play ‘Hop-o-my-thumb,’ Ruth, dear,” Mollie whispered, “I needn’t have created all this trouble. Do you think Miss Sallie will ever forgive me?”

“Indeed she will,” Ruth assured her. “She will be so happy to see you again, you poor, tired Mollie, she’ll forget to scold!”

By this time the girls could hear the noise of voices and the beating of bushes. “Here we are!” Ruth called out cheerfully. “Don’t worry. We have found Mollie!”

Naki burst through the opening. Ceally and Grace were with him and two strange men from the farm below them on the hill.

Naki picked up Mollie in his arms as though she had been a baby, and the party trudged on to their little log cabin.

At the top of the fateful ravine they found Miss Sallie. She could bear the suspense of waiting no longer and had climbed up alone.

“Home for sure!” proclaimed Naki briefly, as he deposited Mollie, still wrapped in Grace’s red sweater, on the couch before the fire in their cosy living room.