A sound outside had aroused them.
It was the other young people returning, on horses Sid Todd had taken to them.

Dave and Phil sprang up to meet them.
"Oh, I am so glad to get back!" cried Belle, as she ran to embrace her mother.

"Such a time as we have had!" "Oh, yes, we were safe enough, after we got to the shack," said Laura, in answer to a question from her brother.

"But, oh, how it did blow!" "We were afraid the shack would be carried right up into the air," said Jessie.

"And we were so worried about you--thinking a tree in the woods would come down on you." "Well, one did, pretty nearly," answered Dave, and gave the particulars.
"The men have all gone off after the horse-thieves," said Roger.