Chapter XVIII

Surprised



The Outdoor Girls could hardly have told how they got back to the lodge
after that. Blindly they stumbled through the underbrush, expecting they
knew not what horrible thing, thankful for the moonlight that made it
possible for them to hurry.

They did reach home somehow and there they sat until late into the night,
trying to find some explanation for the thing they had seen, striving to
think up some plan for hunting it down until finally Mrs. Irving sent them
to bed.

That did not do very much good, for they lay awake and talked until the
first rays of sunlight crept into the windows. Then they said goodnight
and sank into a sleep of exhaustion.

For three days after the episode the girls never went far from the house
on foot. They would take the cars and spin down the open road, but a sort
of horror of the supernatural kept them from venturing into the woods
again.

But when the fourth day dawned the fright of their moonlight experience
had begun to wear off and they were beginning to feel ashamed of their
fear.