THE RESCUE "Take off your shoes and leave them here," Tom whispered; "and follow me and don't speak.

Step just where I step." Tom's soft moccasins were better even than stocking feet and he moved down into the thicket stealthily, silently.

Not a twig cracked beneath his feet.

He lifted the impediments of branch and bush aside and let them spring easily back into place again without a sound.

Hervey crawled close behind him, passing through these openings while Tom held the entangled thicket apart for both to pass.