"Come on, Ruth, or we'll be caught."
They scrambled up from the mossy bed, and hurried from the little
glen. But the storm came on apace, and before they were half-way out
of the woods there was a sudden flurry of wind, and then came a
deluge of rain, ushered in by vivid lightning, and loud thunder.
"Oh, Alice, we'll be drenched--and our new dresses!" cried Ruth.
"Let's get under a tree," suggested the younger girl. "That will
shelter us."
"And get struck by lightning! I guess not!" protested Ruth. "Trees
are always dangerous in a thunder storm."
"But we must find shelter!" said Alice, as they ran on.
They came to a little clearing in the woods, and pausing at the edge
saw a lonely cabin in the midst of it.
"Come on over there!" cried Alice. "They'll take us in, whoever they
are, until the shower is over."
Seizing Ruth's hand she darted toward the cabin. Then both girls saw
a man open the door and stand in it--a man at the sight of whom they
drew back in alarm.
CHAPTER XVI
THE MAN AND THE UMBRELLA
For a moment the man stood in the doorway of the cabin, staring at
Ruth and Alice standing there in the drenching rain. They had
recognized him at once as the man whom they had seen run out of the
old barn--the limping man who had fled down the moonlit road when he
espied them on the bridge.
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