"Baby!" she finally apostrophized herself. "I don't suppose that
beast is anywhere near. Here goes!" and she raised her clear voice in
a lusty shout.

There came, however, no reply. She shouted again and again, with a
like result.

"Where under the sun could those boys have gone?" was her unspoken
question. "Could they have returned to the house by some other path?"

But she did not believe this was so. Rather, she was inclined to
think Tom and his comrades had gone farther than the pond. There was
a good-sized stream through which the waters of this pond emptied
into Rolling River. That outlet was frozen over, too, and it would be
just like the three boys to explore the frozen stream.

Ruth wished that she had brought her skates instead of the gun with
her. She felt now that the boys should indeed be warned of the
roaming panther, as they had gone so far from the lodge. Here was
Reno, too. If she told the mastiff to find Tom, he would doubtless do
so. She could even send some written word to the boys by the dog--had
she a pencil and paper. It would not be the first time that Reno had
played message-bearer.

But the warn Tom and his companions would not be all Ruth had
started out to do. Tom was a good shot and a steady hand, she knew.
With this loaded rifle in his hand the party might feel fit to meet
the panther, if it so fell out. Without any weapon even the noble
mastiff might prove an insufficient protection.