"I am sure I heard two voices. Should we call? Or ask who is there?"
"No, it will be better to take our chances. It would be awful to be disappointed now," said the queen in a whisper.
"Surely Lena would not have betrayed us?"
"Never. She is as faithful as--my right hand."
"Of course! But I cannot help being afraid of everything. Helka, we should take some refreshment. That will give us courage."
"I hope Lena will soon fetch the tea," and the queen sighed. "This suspense is dreadful."
"But it will pay us in the end. If we made a mistake now----"
Cora stopped.
A tap came at the door, at which both girls fairly jumped.
"I will answer," said Helka, immediately regaining her composure. She opened the door.
"I forgot my lesson book in your room to-day," said a voice that proved to be that of Christine, "and may I get it?"
"Not to-night," answered Helka decisively. "You should not forget things, and it is too late for lessons."
"But the man--Jensen--says I must get it. He is my teacher, and he is below."
"Tell him Helka says you must go to bed: to bed, do you hear? At once!
I will have Lena see how you obey me."
The girl turned away. Helka locked the door.
"What does that mean?" asked Cora anxiously.
"They are watching us. We must be very cautious. But she is only a timid child and she will go to bed. I do wonder what is keeping Lena?"
"If they should keep her down stairs all night, then could we not venture to leave?" asked Cora.
"I don"t know. They might suspect, and they might keep Lena. You take up the guitar and I will ring."
Cora obeyed. How her hands trembled! To be found out would almost mean death to both of them.
Helka pulled the cord that rang the hall bell. Then they waited, but there was no answer. She pulled it again, and after a few minutes she heard the familiar step of Lena.
She opened the door before the Gypsy girl had a chance to knock.
A wild gesture of the girl"s hands told Helka not to speak. Then she entered the room.
"They are watching," she whispered, and without waiting for a reply she darted out into the hall again and crept down the stairs.
"Can"t we----"
"Hush!" cautioned the queen as she pressed Cora"s hands to bid her keep up her courage.
It seemed hours. Would the trees never stop rustling, and would the steps below never cease their shuffling?
"I have said that this was to be my night of music," whispered Helka.
"The night of the full moon always is. So we must have music!"
A long line of automobiles had rumbled along the narrow road. Not a horn sounded, not one of the cars gave any warning. It was night in the White Mountains, and besides the party from the Tip-Top, who had been searching from late that afternoon, there were also, on Mr. Rand"s orders, two officers in a runabout.
"Which way?" called the boys from their car. "Sounds like water!"
"Oh, mercy!" exclaimed Bess, who was quite near. "Don"t let us run over a falls!"
"No danger!" came back from the Rand car. "That water is half a mile away."
"This is rather unsafe for the girls, though," said Jack to Ed. "I wonder if they don"t want to change cars?"
"I have just asked Bess and Betty," replied Ed, "and they would not hear of it. Strange that such timid girls can be so plucky on occasions."
"They"re game all right," observed Jack. "I almost feel, now that we are out in the woods, that Cora is along. It is tough to think anything else."
"Perhaps she is. I never felt as encouraged as I do to-night,"
declared Ed. "Somehow we started out to win and we"ve got to do it!"
Now, the one great difficulty of this searching tour was that of not sounding the horns, consequently they had to feel their way, as on almost any part of the mountain roads there might be stray cottagers, or campers, or rustics, in danger of being run down.
The lights flashed brightly as if trying to do their part in the search for Cora Kimball.
Giant trees threw formidable shadows, and smaller ones whispered the secrets of the wood. But the girls and boys, and the women and men were too seriously bent upon their work to notice any signs so unimportant.
Suddenly Jack turned off his power. He wanted to listen.
"Did you hear anything?" asked Ed.
"Thought I did, but these evergreens make all sorts of noises."
"The others are making for the hill. We had best not lose sight of them," suggested Ed.
At this Jack started up again and was soon under way. But something had sounded "human." He felt that there must be some sort of life near them.
In a few minutes he was alongside the other cars.
"What kept you?" asked Bess, eager for anything new.
"Nothing," replied Ed. "We just wanted to listen."
"We will leave the cars here and walk. I thought I saw a light," said Jack.