“Oh, but that might have happened to anyone—­if we were out after orchids, instead of being filmed,” protested Alice.  “I don’t ever want to think of giving up this work.”

“Nor do I!” added Ruth, with more energy than she usually exhibited.

The players were out in the palm forest.  It was several days after the episode of the manatee, and the steamer, with a plentiful supply of wood fuel, had gone up another sluggish stream, some miles farther on.

Quite an elaborate drama was to be filmed and the “full strength of the company,” as Paul laughingly said, was required.  Even little Tommy and Nellie were to used in some of the scenes.

“Isn’t it wild and desolate in here?” remarked Ruth, with a little shudder as they penetrated deeper and deeper into the forest, for Mr. Pertell wanted a certain background.

“It is lonesome,” agreed Alice.  “Whenever I get to a place like this I think of those two missing girls.”

“So do I!  Isn’t it too bad about them?  I wonder if they can have been found by this time?”

“Let us hope so,” said Alice, in a low voice.

It took some little time to arrange for making this new film, and in the first scenes neither Ruth nor Alice were required.  They wandered off to one side, remaining within call, however.

“There’s an orchid!” exclaimed Alice, as she pointed to a beautiful bloom, clinging to a tree.  Seemingly it drew its nourishment from the air alone.

“How beautiful!” remarked Ruth.  “I wonder if we could get it?”

“I can climb the tree,” declared her sister.  “I have on an old skirt.  I’ll get it.”

She did, after some little difficulty, and as she was bringing it to Ruth, Alice looked through an opening between the trees, and exclaimed: 

“Oh, there are Tommy and Nellie.  They are after flowers too, for they each have a handful.  But I must call to them.  They should not wander too far away.”

Together she and Alice, admiring the orchid, advanced toward the two children, who had come to a halt under a big sycamore.

Then, as Alice was about to call, she uttered an exclamation of terror.

“See!” she whispered hoarsely to Ruth.  “That creature in the tree—­right over their heads, and it is crouching for a leap!”

Ruth looked and saw a tawny beast with laid-back ears and twitching tail, stretched on a big limb a short distance above the ground, and right over the two children, who were innocently prattling away, and looking at the flowers they had gathered.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE ANIMATED LOGS

For a moment Alice and Ruth were almost paralyzed with fear.  They stood spellbound, and could only gaze horrifiedly at the tawny beast stretched out on the limb of the tree.

“What—­what shall we do?” asked Alice.

“What can we do?” Ruth returned.  “If we move toward them, or call out, the beast may spring on them.  What is it—­a tiger?”