"Who s'all I get?" demanded Genevieve. And well she might ask, for as far as any one knew, there was not a soul within a mile of them.
"Oh - I don't - know!" came the answering voice. "Go find - some one. Any one. We 'll die - here - if you - don't!" Genevieve was not sure she knew just what that last remark meant, but it evidently indicated something serious.
"All right!" she responded. "I will twy!" And she trotted off to the front of the house.
Here, however, she stopped to consider. Where was she to go find any one? She could not go back home, - she did not know the way. She could not go back to the river, - the way was full of pitfalls in the shape of thorny vines that scratched her face and tripped her feet, and besides, Sally had particularly warned her not to venture in that direction - ever. After all, the most likely place to find any one was surely along the road, for she had, very rarely when sitting on Miss Camilla's porch, observed a wagon driven past. She would walk along the road and see if she could find anybody.
Had Genevieve been older and with a little more understanding, she would have comprehended the desperate plight that had befallen her sister and Doris and Miss Camilla. And she would have lent wings to her feet and scurried to the nearest dwelling as fast as those feet would carry her. But she was scarcely more than a baby. The situation, though peculiar, did not strike her as so much a matter for haste as for patient waiting till the person required should happen along. As she did n't see any one approaching in either direction, she decided to return to the house and keep a strict eye on the road.
And so she returned, seated herself on the porch steps, tucked her thumb in her mouth - and waited. There was no further calling from the curious hole in the back garden and nothing happened for a long, long time. Genevieve had just about decided to go back and inquire of Doris what else to do, when suddenly the afternoon stillness was broken by the "chug-chug" of a motor car and the honking of its horn. And before Genevieve could jump to her feet, a big automobile had come plowing down the sandy road and stopped right in front of the gate.
"Here 's the place!" called out the chauffeur, and jumping down, walked around to open the door at the side for its occupants to get out. A pleasant-looking man descended and gave his hand to the lady beside him. And, to Genevieve's great astonishment, the lady proved to be none other than the mother of "Dowis."
"Well, where 's every one?" inquired the gentleman. "I don't see a soul but this wee tot sitting on the steps."
"Why, there 's Genevieve!" cried Mrs. Craig, who had seen the baby many times before. "How are you, dear? Where are the others? Inside?"
"No," answered Genevieve. "In de garden. Dowis she said come. Find some one."
"Oh, they 're in the garden, are they? Well, we 'll go around there and give them a surprise, Henry. Doris will simply be bowled over to see her 'daddy' here so unexpectedly! And I 'm very anxious to meet this Miss Camilla she has talked so much about. Come and show us the way, Genevieve."
The baby obediently took her hand and led her around to the back of the house, the gentleman following.
"But I don't see any one here!" he exclaimed when they had reached the back. "Are n't you mistaken, honey?" This to Genevieve.
"No, they in big hole," she announced gravely. The remark aroused considerable surprise and amused curiosity.
"Well, lead us to the 'big hole,'" commanded Mrs. Craig laughingly. "Big hole, indeed! I 've been wondering what in the world Doris was up to lately, but I never dreamed she was excavating!"
Genevieve still gravely led the way through the forest of bean-poles to the edge of the newly sunk depression.
"What 's all this?" suddenly demanded Mr. Craig. "It looks as if there had been a landslide here. Where are the others, little girl? They 've probably forsaken this and gone elsewhere."
But Genevieve was not to be moved from her original statement. "They in dere!" she insisted, pointing downward. "Dowis called. She say 'Go find some one.'" The baby's persistence was not to be questioned.
Mr. Craig looked grave and his wife grew pale and frightened. "Oh, Henry, what do you suppose can be the matter?" she quavered. "I do believe Genevieve is telling the truth."
"There 's something mighty queer about it," he answered hastily. "I can't understand how in the world it has come about, but if that child is right, there 's been a landslide or a cave-in of some sort here and Doris and the rest are caught in it. Good heavens! If that 's so, we can't act too quickly!" and he ran round to the front of the house shouting to the chauffeur, who had remained in the car:
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