The Moving Picture Girls Under the Palms Part 35

"There it is again!" whispered Alice.

Unmistakably now they all heard voices calling--voices that increased in intensity--coming nearer.

"Oh, they've found us! They've found us!" half sobbed Ruth.

"Call again, boys--I--I can't," faltered Alice.

Russ and Paul shouted.

Again came an unmistakable answer. Now was heard a crashing in the underbrush that told of the approach of someone, and, a moment later there came into view, on the far side of the clearing, where stood the palm leaf hut, two girls, one with a gun over her shoulder, and the other with a brace of birds hanging from her waist.

The two girls stopped for a moment, and then, with joyful shouts, rushed forward.

As for our friends, they seemed paralyzed with astonishment. It was so different from what they had expected. Then Alice found her voice, and cried:

"The two lost girls--we have found them!"

CHAPTER XXV

OUT OF THE WILDS

For perhaps several seconds the two parties strangely met in that Florida wild stood staring at one another. Then the two girls hurried forward, and one of them exclaimed:

"Oh, have you come for us?"

"Not exactly, Miss Madison."

"Oh--you--you know us?" gasped the other.

"Certainly, Mabel," laughed Alice. "Don't you remember us--the moving picture girls?"

"Ruth--Alice DeVere!" came the simultaneous cry from the lost girls--now the _found_ girls. "Oh, how did you ever get here?" asked Helen Madison, for it was really she and her sister. Alice had recognized them first, and Ruth knew them a moment later.

"We are lost, like yourselves," said Ruth. "Oh, but can you tell us where our steamer is?"

"Your steamer--no!" half-sobbed Mabel. "Oh, it is awful! We have been lost a long time--it seems a month, but of course it isn't. We can't find our way out of this wilderness. It is a labyrinth, and we dare not go far from this hut for fear we shall never find it again. It has been terrible. But if you are lost you cannot help us. What shall we do?"

"Let us eat first," suggested Russ, practically. "You have some birds there. I fancy you are as hungry as we are. We have some crackers and coffee. We'll get up a meal and then decide what to do. Come, Paul, we're the commissary department."

"Oh, but we must hear your story!" cried Ruth to the lost girls, after she had presented Mrs. Maguire and the boys. "We read about you in the paper, and we heard of you from the hotel clerk in Sycamore."

"There isn't much to tell," said Mabel. "We started off after wild orchids. Well, we became lost, and in trying to find our way back we wandered farther and farther into the swamp. We had our motor boat, as you see, and quite a quant.i.ty of provisions, which was lucky for us. We tried our best to get out, but could not.

"Finally we found this spot--the hut was already here, built by alligator hunters, very likely. We appropriated it, and the small quant.i.ty of food it contained. Since then we have lived on that and what we could shoot.

Fortunately game was plentiful, but we have so longed for some bread and coffee. I am dying for a cup."

"Dinner will soon be served," laughed Russ, who, with Paul, was preparing a rude meal, broiling the birds over a camp fire.

"And now tell us about yourselves," suggested Mabel to Alice. "Oh! to think of meeting you again this way," and she recalled the first meeting in the train going to the New England backwoods.

By degrees, and with each one telling a part, the story of the moving picture players was related. They told how they had looked in vain for their steamer. Mabel and Helen Madison also went more into details, giving some of their trying experiences in the swamps and bayous.

"But for days we have not tried to find our way from here," said Mabel.

"Our motor boat broke down, and we can't get it to go."

"I fancy I can fix it," said Russ, "but the question is: Which way to go?

We may only get to a worse place."

"Let us eat, anyhow," suggested Paul.

It was not a very elaborate meal, but it put new heart and courage into the lost ones.

"We'll get back somehow--some time," declared Alice, who was now almost her old self. "And then won't everybody be glad!"

Night was coming on, but before the advent of darkness Russ had remedied the defect in the motor boat. There was trouble with the ignition system, and also with the carbureter.

"Now we could go, if we knew which way to go," he said, as he tested the craft.

"Hark!" exclaimed Alice, suddenly.

The sound of a cheerful whistle came through the screen of trees.

"Oh!" gasped Ruth. "Who can it be?"

She had her answer a moment later.

Around a bend in the stream, rowing a battered boat, came an old colored man. It was he who was making the melody. Cheerfully he whistled, and more happily was he listened to.

"Ahoy there, Uncle!" called Russ. "Can you tell us where we are, and where the _Magnolia_ is tied up?"

The old colored man was so startled by the sudden hail, breaking in on his whistling, that he nearly went overboard. He recovered himself, however, and called out:

"Whut--whut yo' all doin' at mah cabin?"

"Is this your place, Uncle?" asked Russ.

"It sh.o.r.e am. An'--an'--I bids yo' all welcome--I sh.o.r.e does, honey!" he added quickly, remembering his hospitality.

"We've made ourselves at home," said Mabel. "Oh, whoever you are, can you show us the way out of this wilderness?"

"Kin I show yo' all a way outen dish yeah woods? I sh.o.r.e kin, honey lamb!

I knows dish yeah place laik a book, even if I cain't read. Where all does yo' all want t' go? Oh, wait a minute, though. Hole on! I done got t' ax yo' all some questions. Hab yo' all seen any photographers round 'bout yeah?"

"Photographers?" repeated Paul.