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was so selfless of him, Lisa thought. There he was, with his own worries about his parents, and all he can think about is how hard it is on his sister. Her heart went out to him. Lisa was sure that there must be something she could do to make things easier for Seth. After all, he deserved to have somebody look out for him. And if things went better for Seth, they’d surely be better for Amy.
    “How’s the twig supply?” Seth asked, changing the subject.
    Lisa looked into the bag. “We’re about done, but I suppose we could pick up a few more, just in case.”
    They stood up and walked deeper into the woods.
    “We’d better get extra. This stuff will burn up in no time,” Seth said, handing Lisa another handful of twigs.
    “What do you mean?” Lisa asked.
    “It’s dry,” he said. He took a couple of twigs and crushed them in his hand. “It’ll go fast.”
    It took only a few more minutes to fill the rest of the bag. Then the two of them headed back for the campsite.
    The woods were dense on the mountainside, darkly shaded by tall evergreen trees that provided a smooth forestfloor and cushioned their footsteps. Lisa listened for familiar forest sounds. Here and there birds called to one another. The fresh breeze whistled through the pine boughs. Then she heard something else. It was a loud, shrill call.
    “Listen!” Lisa said excitedly.
    “What is it?”
    “I think it could be a bobcat,” Lisa said.
    “A lion!” Seth exclaimed.
    “No, a bobcat. It’s a kind of lynx. They live in woods like this.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “No,” Lisa said. “They do have a sort of screechy cry, but sounds can get distorted from echoes off the mountains. Let’s be quiet. Maybe we’ll hear it again.”
    “Let’s not wait,” Seth said. Lisa was surprised. He was clearly afraid.
    “If it is a bobcat, he’s no threat to us,” Lisa said. “They would never attack humans. Of course, I wouldn’t want to get between a bobcat and its supper.…” She said it to tease Seth, but it had a stronger effect than she had expected.
    “I’m out of here,” he said. He dropped the bag of sticks and fled, leaving an astonished Lisa behind.
    She picked up the bag and ran after him. “Hey, slowdown!” she called. “There’s nothing to worry about—except that you’re going the wrong way. Seth! This way!”
    Eventually Seth stopped and turned around. Lisa showed him the path and led him straight back to the campsite. They didn’t hear the animal cry again, and Lisa was a little disappointed. She was hoping to find out what it was. However, considering Seth’s reaction, she figured it was just as well.
    “Y OU SHOULD HAVE seen her!” Seth said at the camp fire that night. “She wasn’t scared at all. There we were, in the middle of nowhere, and there’s this incredible screech of a—get this—lion! And he sounds hungry! Does Lisa flinch? She does not! Cool as can be, she takes my arm—she couldn’t have held onto my legs, they were shaking so hard—and she keeps me from running right toward the beast. Lisa Atwood is really something!”
    As if to emphasize his point, he clapped her on the back. Lisa blushed. It didn’t seem to her that she’d really done much for Seth. In spite of what he said, the biggest danger they’d faced in the woods was him running in the wrong direction.
    “Of course she’s really something,” Carole said. “We’ve always known that.”
    “Hear, hear,” said Stevie.
    “My hero!” Amy declared, but Lisa sensed more than a touch of sarcasm in her voice.
    “Come on, guys, you’re embarrassing me,” Lisa said. “It was just a bobcat if it was anything—”
    “Speaking of scary things,” Amy began. “Isn’t it time to talk about something else? Like were you guys listening to the radio in the car yesterday about the escaped monster?”
    “You mean the half-human thing that’s been in the asylum since it ate all those raw chickens?” Stevie chirped in.
    Amy nodded