As they clustered in a group under an old magazine picture of a darkey
with a fiddle in his hand there was an unexpected sound just outside
the door, and the big room grew suddenly darker.

The four girls turned simultaneously.

The heavy door through which they had entered the cabin, and which was
the only entrance, had been shut fast. At the same instant there was
the sound of a heavy, sliding bolt, then the rush of flying feet.

For the moment no one of the girls realized the seriousness of what had
happened.

"Some one must have locked us in for a joke," declared Phil stoutly.

Madge ran to the door and shook it with all her strength. It was built
of heavy logs, and, though the girls could see the daylight through the
cracks between the timbers, the door showed no sign of opening.

"Don't work so hard, Madge," remonstrated Phil. "Whoever shut us in
will come back in a moment to unfasten the bolt."

The girls waited a long time. No one returned.

"Perhaps the person who closed the door did not know there was any one
in the cabin," suggested Eleanor faintly.

"But we were all talking, Nellie. No one but a deaf person could have
failed to hear us," Lillian insisted.