Tommy, having been unable to free herself from her blanket, had rolled over and over until she reached the opposite side of the tent. Margery Brown, not having got out of the way, had been hit on the head by a tent-pole, which knocked her down and so dazed her for the moment that she lay whimpering where she had fallen.
Of this Harriet and Miss Elting were unaware. Their efforts were directed toward getting out of the tent to learn what had occurred. They could hear the canvas ripping; and the noise of the floundering hordes just outside was still going on. Together the two women fought their way out from under the canvas.
"Catch 'em! Catch 'em!" Jim was yelling at the top of his voice. "The horses are getting away!"
"Yes, and they have taken a good part of the tent with them," called Harriet.
The men had halted, not knowing whether they should proceed or not.
"Come on! come on!" cried Miss Elting. She could not see the horses, but she could hear them crashing through the bushes whinnying in terror. There was something sinister in this sudden outbreak, something that neither Miss Elting nor Harriet Burrell understood. Jane, having crawled from beneath the overturned tent, came running to them.
"What a mess!" she cried in dismay. "I feel as though I had been in a railroad wreck. What was it?"
"The horses," answered Harriet.
"Is that all? Didn't anything fall on us?"
"I think we had a narrow escape from being trampled by the horses."
The guide came running to them.
"Was any one hurt? What, the tent down?"
"Yes. The animals ran into it and tore it down," replied the guardian. "I don't understand it at all. Do you, Mr. Grubb?"
"I swum, I don't!" he exploded. "Run into the tent? Why should they do that?"
"They must have been terribly frightened," averred Jane McCarthy. "Now, what could have frightened a pair of horses enough to make them so blind they couldn't see a tent? Will you tell me that?"
The guide kicked the embers of the campfire, and piled on some light wood. At this juncture Hazel came out, leading Margery, who had both hands pressed to her head.
"Something fell on her head," explained Hazel.
Miss Elting took Margery to the fire and made her sit down. Margery had no need to be urged. She sat down, all in a heap, and would have toppled over had not the guardian held her up. A lump as large as a horse chestnut had risen on the stout girl's head.
"Oh, my dear! You did get a bump, didn't you?" cried the guardian. "Sit right where you are. I will bring some liniment. Fortunately, the skin is not broken. Mr. Grubb, won't you please see what you can do with the tent? I fear it is seriously damaged."
"I want to look at those halters, first, if you can wait a minute."
Miss Elting nodded, then hurried to the collapsed tent, under which she burrowed and groped about in the dark in search of her medicine kit, which she finally found and brought to the fireside. Margery's swollen head was treated until the soreness had become eased a little. Harriet and Jane supported her to a blanket that they had brought from the tent, and, after tucking her in, left the unfortunate Margery to doze and rest. Tommy crept over and kissed her on the forehead.
"I'm tho thorry, Buthter," she whispered sympathetically. "I withh it might have been me who got the bump on the head. But never mind; you will be better pretty thoon. Don't you think tho?"
Margery's answer was a moan. Tommy crept away with a troubled look in her eyes.
"The horses broke their halters," Janus was saying as Tommy joined her companions. "Can't understand what skeered them into doing that. Jim must be having a chase, or he'd have been back before this. Want to quit?"
"Certainly not," answered Miss Elting with emphasis. "But we should like to know what it means."
"Might have been a bird or something. Doesn't take much to startle a horse when he's asleep. I've known a partridge to fly up before a sleeping horse and cause the animal to break away and rip things up generally. You'll find, if you find at all, that it was something like this skeered Jim's nags."
"I gueth it wath a two-legged bird," observe Tommy wisely.
"That would be strange, indeed," answered Miss Elting. "How many legs do birds ordinarily have?"
Tommy flushed.
"That ith tho. I wath thinking a bird had four legs, jutht like a table."
Margery groaned.
"Oh! Are you feeling badly again, dear?" called Miss Elting.
"Yes."
"What is it? Does your head pain you?" questioned the guardian.
"No, it's Tommy. She gives me a pain."
"Tommy, come help us put up the tent," urged Harriet. "Maybe it will fall on your head next. That will make Margery feel well again, won't it, dearie?"
Margery, in a weak voice, agreed that it would. Tommy retorted that she didn't care if it did.
The tent was found to have been quite badly torn. The hoofs of the horses had left great rents in it. After examining the canvas it was decided not to try to repair it that night, but to leave it as it was until morning, when the girls would be better able to see what they were doing.
They had once more raised the tent, having been obliged to cut one new pole, when Jim returned leading the horses. They were very nervous and kept tossing their heads, rearing and plunging at the slightest unusual sound.
"Something wrong with them. I don't know what it is," he said, in answer to the guide's glance of inquiry.
"Lead 'em up here. Well, I swum!"
"Wha—at is it?" demanded Margery, sitting up.
"Look at that, will ye?"
The girls got as close to the animals as was prudent. Janus parted the hair on the hip of one horse and pointed to a small wound. The other horse bore a similar wound.
"Oh, they have hurt themselves. Isn't it too bad?" sympathized Hazel.
"Hurt themselves!" exploded the guide. "Those wounds were made with some sharp instrument, maybe a knife. I don't know. Now, can you blame them for running away and taking the tent down? This business is moving too fast! What are we going to do?"
"You are the guide, sir. You are the responsible head of the party," replied Miss Elting.
"I thought I was, too. But, I swum! I don't know which from t'other any more. Jim, what do you think about that?" pointing a finger at the horses and indicating their wounded hips. "Did they get them themselves, or did somebody do it to them? I can't make up my mind."
"Some one did it, Jan. The hosses never did that themselves."
"But how could they?"
"Maybe tied a knife to a long stick. Didn't mean to do any serious work or would have cut deeper. Just went through the skin, that's all, but enough to set the critters crazy. See any one about these parts?" questioned the driver, turning to the girls.
"No, sir. We were under the tent. We saw nothing," answered Harriet. "I think it must have been the squealing of the horses that awakened us. The next we knew we were being trampled on and the tent was down about our ears. Have you looked about here carefully, Mr. Grubb?"
"For what?" returned Janus quickly.
"For thpookth," Tommy replied pertly.
"Pshaw!"
"I mean have you looked where the horses were tied," explained Harriet. "You did examine the halters. You say they were broken, not cut. I think we should look further."
"Yes. I agree with Harriet that we ought to make a careful search of the ground about the camp," said Miss Elting. "We cannot afford to miss opportunities that might solve this mystery. I wish you and the driver would make a start," she urged.
"All right. Where's the lantern?" demanded Janus.
"It went down with the bridge," Harriet informed him. "We have another, a smaller one, but I hardly think it will be of much use for our purpose. I'll tell you what. Why not use some of the dry pitch pine roots that you gathered?" suggested Harriet. "They are ready to burn and will make excellent torches. We have plenty of kindling wood without them."
"An excellent idea," approved the guardian.
Janus glanced at Jim and nodded. "I told you so," chuckled the guide. "I knew she could suggest something."
Janus gathered up some roots, whittling one end of each stick into a sunflower-like bunch of shavings. These ends he lighted, whereat the torches flared up into flickering, smoking flames. The guide led the way, followed by the entire Meadow-Brook party, Margery Brown having become so interested as to forget her troubles for the moment, though the lump on her head was still large and painful.
Just before reaching the trees where the horses had been tied, Miss Elting suggested that all save the guide and Harriet stop where they were.
"If so many of us go forward we shall not only be likely to miss any clues there are, but perhaps destroy them altogether. I have an idea that we are going to find something that will enlighten us," she added.
"That's good, common sense," agreed the guide, nodding his approval.
"Is there anything you wish us to do, Mr. Grubb?" asked Miss Elting.
"Little Brownie is the pilot," replied Janus jocularly, waving a hand in Harriet Burrell's direction. "Whatever she suggests, we will do. We can't do any better than to follow her lead."
Harriet's cheeks flushed. She had taken a torch and began slowly to circle the trees to which the horses had been tied upon arriving at the camp site. At first her circle was a wide one, Janus following her example by beginning well out beyond the trees. Harriet's smoking torch was held close to the ground, sweeping from side to side, the torch bearer assuming a crouching position with head well lowered, body bent almost double.
"Look out!" shouted Tommy, as Harriet came abreast of her party.
"Wha—at?" Harriet straightened up sharply. "What is it!"
"You will burn your nothe, if you don't look out."
"Oh, Tommy!" Harriet laughed merrily. "Is that all?"
"I was thinking the same thing," chuckled the guide. "Wish I could bend over like that. But don't bother us, little one. This is our busy night, and right serious business it is, too." The laughter disappeared from his face and Janus bent low to his task.
The others of the party had either seated themselves on the ground or leaned against trees. They chatted while the guide and Harriet Burrell sought for the true trail, but it was not very encouraging work.
The two torches flickered and smoked weirdly, now and then becoming mere glows like distant lamps in a fog, as the bearer slipped behind a tree or was masked by an intervening growth of bushes whose foliage was very thick and dense.
"Oh, Mr. Grubb, who of our party has brass-headed tacks in his boot heels?" called Harriet.
"I have. Why?"
"I found a heel mark that gave me that impression," answered Harriet laughingly.
"Well, I swum!"
"It was a guess about their being brass-headed, though," she admitted.
"You would have made a prize sheriff, Little Brownie," declared the guide, gazing at her admiringly. "If I'd had you to nose the trail when I was after Red Tacy and Charlie Valdes it wouldn't have taken me a matter of two months to get them."
"Who are they?"
"A couple of outlaws who turned things upside down in these hills some years ago. But I got them both. They are serving terms up at Concord now. Find anything?"
"No, sir."
The circles were steadily narrowing, though the man and the girl were working slowly and deliberately, really covering the ground by inches, so thorough was their search for clues of the supposed night visitors. No spot of the size of a hand escaped the keen scrutiny of one or the other of them. They could not have answered had they been asked what particular thing they had hoped to find, but in some vague way each felt that a clue to the mystery would be turned up as a result of their search. If a person had stolen into camp under cover of the night, wounding and stampeding the horses, it was probable that footprints or other evidences of his presence had been left behind, a tell-tale clue to the recent visitor. As yet, not a single trace had been found by the searchers. They continued with their work until they finally brought up facing each other in front of the trees to which the broken ends of the halters were still tied.
Harriet glanced up into the perplexed face of the guide and laughed. Janus gave back a glum look and muttered, "I swum!"
"Have you two sleuths finished your work?" called Crazy Jane.
"It certainly looks as though we had," replied Harriet. "What do you think, Mr. Grubb?"
"I reckon we're beaten."
"Yes. We haven't found a clue of any consequence. Perhaps we have imagined too much, but I do not think so."
"Give me a torch; it's my turn now. Let's see what Crazy Jane can find," said Jane McCarthy. "My grandfather was the champion shamrock hunter of the Emerald Isle, and my Dad says I'm a pocket edition of my grandfather. Just watch me while I show you a few things."
Harriet handed her torch to Jane, and, walking over, sat down by Miss Elting.
"Did you really fail for once, Harriet?" questioned the guardian in a teasing voice. She understood Harriet's peculiarities, knowing that the girl was not given to talking when there was real or fancied reason why she should not.
"I should say I did; that is, I did not discover anything that I could feel certain about. But some one has been here. There was just one footprint in a bit of soft dirt, but some one had most provokingly stepped on it, nearly obliterating it. From what I could make out of the original footprint it wasn't made by any of our party. That is all I found, but enough to verify our suspicions. Where is Jane going?"
Jane McCarthy was moving away from camp, apparently following the trail made by the party when they came up from the river to make camp among the trees.
"That's a good idea, too," she added approvingly, instantly catching the significance of Jane's action. "I never thought of trying it."
"I don't know just what you mean, but anything not thought of by you I shouldn't consider worth bothering about." Miss Elting laughed softly, patting the brown head beside her. "There! She is returning, and empty-handed like yourself, I'll warrant."
"Do not be too certain of that. On the contrary, Jane has discovered something."
"Why do you think that?"
"I can tell by the swing of her shoulders. Miss Elting, Crazy Jane has beaten us all; you see if she hasn't. Hoo-e-e-e!"
"Jane! Oh, Jane! Did you find something?" cried Tommy, in a shrill, high-pitched voice that Margery declared might have been heard a mile away. "What did you find?"
"Did I find thomething?" mimicked Jane. "Does Crazy Jane McCarthy ever fail to get what she goes after? Yes, I did find something; something, too, that will make you girls open your eyes. And you too, Mr. Grubb! Sh-h-! Not a word," she warned dramatically. "Come over by the campfire, where we can see, and I'll show you all——"
"Thomething," finished Tommy Thompson.
"Yes, 'thomething,'" answered Jane with a nod, then hurried toward the camp. Her companions raced after her, Janus Grubb bringing up the rear in long strides, the fingers of one hand clutched in his abundant whiskers. Jim stood gazing after them, his underjaw drooping. Jim hadn't yet quite come to an understanding of this most unusual company. He stood there wondering until the girls had passed out of his sight, after which the driver, with hands thrust deep in his pockets, walked slowly campward, trying to make up his mind what had happened.
"Sit down, darlin's," commanded Jane, after the eager girls had reached their campfire. "Sit down and make yourselves comfortable."
"For goodness' sake, tell us!" exclaimed Margery. "Can't you see we are all just perishing with curiosity?"
"Yeth. I'm motht thuffocated from holding my breath," declared Tommy. "But Buthter ith thuffocated hecauthe she ith tho fat. Don't you think it ith awful to be tho fat, Mr. Januth?" She gazed, in apparent unblinking innocence, at the solemn-faced guide, who answered with twinkling eyes.
"I dunno, Miss. I never was fat. Never had time to eat enough to make me fat."
"That ith too bad," answered Tommy sympathetically.
"Come, come, Jane, don't keep us in suspense. What did you find, or didn't you find anything at all?" urged Miss Elting.
"Don't worry. I made a find, but you never could guess, if you lived a thousand years, what I found. I couldn't have guessed it either. Nor could Harriet, as sharp as she is. Now, listen, darlin's. I found—I found—oh, if you knew how funny you all look! I found an old pair of specs—spectacles. I fooled you that time, didn't I?" she chuckled, hugging herself delightedly. "You thought it was something wonderful."
"Oh, fudge!" said Margery disgustedly. "I might have known you weren't in earnest."
"I call that real mean of you, Jane," pouted Hazel Holland.
Miss Elting laughed tolerantly, nodding at Harriet as though to say, "I told you so." But Harriet's gaze was fixed on Crazy Jane's face. Harriet knew very well that there was something more to be said; that Jane really had made an important discovery, and that, after having teased her companions to her satisfaction, she would tell them the rest of the story.
"Spectacles were made to assist people in seeing. Suppose you let us see, Jane," suggested Harriet.
"Now, now, Bright Eyes, don't be hasty," chided Jane. "Do you really wish to see?"
Harriet yawned as though completely indifferent.
"I am not so curious over your discovery that I cannot wait until morning to hear about it. I'm sleepy and I am going to bed, provided I can find one," she replied, rising and stretching herself indolently. "Good night, Jane."
"Wait!" Jane knew that Harriet meant exactly what she said. She knew that it was time to stop trifling and to explain. "If you must see them, here they are." She drew the "specs" from a pocket in her skirt, holding them at arm's-length suspended from a string that the wearer had fastened to them to keep the glasses over his eyes.
Harriet and Miss Elting uttered an "Oh!"
"I thought you would say something when you saw them," chuckled Jane. Her face was flushed; her eyes sparkled triumphantly.
"Huh! Goggles!" grunted Janus.
"You have guessed it the first time," cried Jane.
"Green goggles! Do you see that, girls?" cried Harriet excitedly.
"Green goggles!" cried Harriet excitedly.[Illustration: "Green goggles!" cried Harriet excitedly.]
"Green goggles!" cried Harriet excitedly.[Illustration: "Green goggles!" cried Harriet excitedly.]
"They are, indeed," breathed the guardian.
"Well, I swum! Where'd you find them?" questioned the guide, interested, but failing to catch the real significance of Jane McCarthy's discovery.
"Oh-h-h-h!" chorused the Meadow-Brook Girls.
"And I believe they are the very same," declared Harriet, nodding thoughtfully over the goggles, which she had taken from Jane's hand. "You certainly have made a find. I think we are beginning to understand, Miss Elting."
"Yes. Mr. Grubb does not, though."
"Some one dropped them; I understand that well enough. But the spectacles themselves don't tell us who the fellow is by a long shot. I know you ladies have discovered something about the 'specs' and I'd like pretty well to hear what it is."
"You are wrong in one way, Mr. Grubb. These goggles do tell us who dropped them, if our surmises are correct."
"You don't say?"
"Yes. Do you recall the little experience we had on the station platform at Compton on the evening of our arrival?"
"You mean about the fellow who tried to make you believe he was I?"
"Yes. But perhaps you have forgotten our telling you that the man wore goggles?"
"Well, I swum!" Janus stroked his whiskers nervously.
"Yeth. Tho did Harriet. And thhe got wet," observed Tommy flippantly.
"Later on that same evening," continued Miss Elting, "we saw the man again on the porch at the post-office. You remember how you and Harriet hurried down the steps after him. As he stood with his back to the window she had discovered that the goggles were green. These may or may not be the identical goggles, but I believe they are."
"I haven't the least doubt of it," interjected Harriet. "These have a white cord on them, as you can see. So did those worn by the man that night."
"I saw the fellow you mean," interposed Jim. "I wondered who he was. I was at the station to see if your party had come in. This fellow was keeping out of sight a good deal, but I plainly saw the specs on him. Then I didn't see him any more. He must have hit the trail up the mountain."
"Well, I swum!" repeated Janus.
"I think you ought to compel the authorities to do something when you get back to Compton," said the guardian. "I believe this man of the goggles is determined to wreak vengeance on us, and for some reason that we know nothing about."
"I have it!" cried Harriet excitedly. "Now I know who that man who called on you reminded me of. Collins was the man of the green goggles. Oh, why didn't I think of it before?"
"But Mr. Collins wore a beard; the other man did not," objected Miss Elting.
"I can't help it. They were one and the same. Does that help you any, Mr. Grubb?"
The guide shook his head.
"Tell them all about it when you get back, Jim. The sheriff'll run the fellow down. I shouldn't be surprised if the sheriff came out here. You tell him where we are going. You better get started now. No need to wait till morning. You young ladies turn in. I shall keep watch during the rest of the night. I take no more chances. It is time for something to be done, rather than to wait till it's too late."
"I agree with you," answered the guardian, emphasizing her conclusion with an emphatic nod. "Now, girls, go to bed, as Mr. Grubb suggests. I shall be with you in a few moments We must get as early a start as possible."
"Yes, the trouble begins in the morning," agreed Janus. "But I reckon the young ladies are good for it. They are pretty well seasoned, but they will find themselves thoroughly fagged before to-morrow night."
It was not long afterward that the girls were sound asleep, not to be awakened until an hour after daylight. When they emerged from their torn tent they were greeted by the welcome odors of breakfast, which the guide now had ready to serve. After breakfast began the hard climb up the mountain, but the Meadow-Brook Girls approached it joyously. It was worth while because they were accomplishing something. Packs were made ready immediately after breakfast. Fairly staggering under their burdens, the party set out up a very fair pack trail, a short cut to the Shelter, part way up the side of Mount Chocorua.
The Shelter was reached about the middle of the forenoon. The girls dropped their burdens and threw themselves down, breathing hard, with flushed faces and bright eyes. Even Margery seemed to be taking a real interest in life, though she had complained a little of the bump on her head, which was even more tender than it had been the previous night after she had been hit by the tent pole.
"No time to waste. You young ladies get the luncheon ready while I am fixing the packs," called the guide. "We must reach the Sokoki Leap before night, or we shan't have a good place to sleep. I am going to leave a good part of the equipment here. We will pick it up on our way down to-morrow afternoon."
The girls dragged themselves to their feet and began preparing the light luncheon that they had decided upon. It would not be wise to eat a heavy meal now, with the work of the afternoon before them. In the meantime Mr. Grubb assorted their belongings into neat packs. They were bacon, rice and flour, coffee and a little corn meal, together with seasonings and butter, with a small bag of sugar and a can of condensed milk. One tin plate apiece and "one to grow on," a spoon, a knife and a fork for each member of the party, one frying-pan, a coffee pot and a tin cup apiece, made up the bulk of their equipment. In addition to this a belt-hatchet was worn by each member of the party, the guide carrying long, slender but strong ropes that would be needed if difficult climbs were attempted. Janus ceased his labors long enough to drink a cup of coffee and eat some biscuit. He told the girls to leave out enough bacon for the entire party for two meals, figuring for three thin slices apiece to the meal. Margery demurred at being limited to three thin slices of bacon. She declared she should perish of hunger.
After luncheon the girls repaired to the hut to make ready for their climb.
"Now, girls," began Miss Elting, "before starting I wish to caution you that you must obey the guide. He understands mountain-climbing. I have done a little climbing but not enough to qualify as an expert. And, remember, no pranks while we are climbing; a single slip might result seriously for all of us. Which way do we go, Mr. Grubb?"
"Around back of the Shelter. There is an easy trail leading up to the top, but that isn't the way you want to go. You want to climb. You shall. Have you your belts on?" He glanced over the girls critically. "All right," he added, "follow me."
Janus led the way around a rear corner of the Shelter, after having labeled and stowed their packs in the hut. He said they would be perfectly safe there, that no one would disturb them. But the girls were rather amazed when, instead of beginning to climb up, the guide started down a sharp incline, calling to his charges to follow.
"Thith ithn't up," cried Tommy.
"We have to go through this gully first of all, then we begin going up," he explained.
The couloir proved to be something of a hard proposition right at the beginning. Jagged rocks, sudden narrow miniature gullies, bushes with sharp thorns, slippery, treacherous shale, made the descent a trying one. Once Margery lost her footing on one of these shale shelfs. She fell flat on her back and slid screaming a full twenty yards, shooting out on a grassy slope little the worse for her slide, except that she had been badly frightened.
Tommy was delighted.
"Wouldn't Buthter make a fine toboggan?" she laughed.
Reaching the bottom of the gully, a long, narrow crevasse in the mountain, they began the real ascent. Up and up they went, now and then lying against a rock, to which they clung, out of breath from their exertions, their faces flushed and warm. Far above them Janus pointed out a little projection of rock that seemed no larger than a human hand.
"That," said the guide, "is where we camp to-night,"
"Thave me!" wailed Tommy.
"Keep going. Wemustreach the Sokoki Leap before dark," urged Janus. And far up there on the mountainside the Meadow-Brook Girls fixed their gaze on the bit of rock that was to be their sleeping place, and where they were to spend a night more full of interest than they dreamed.
For a few moments after the guide's ultimatum they plodded patiently along. No one noticed that the sky was cloudy until a shower of cold raindrops smote them in the face. Tommy and Margery cried out in alarm.
"Climb!" shouted the guide. "You've got to keep going. It isn't going to rain much. Just that one little cloud overhead."
But the cloud, though small, held a deluge of water which was poured directly down into the faces and over the heads of the Meadow-Brook Girls, drenching them. Furthermore, the water made the rocks so slippery that it became difficult for one to take a safe hold with either hands or feet. Progress became more slow, the ascent more difficult.
Janus proved himself a master in the art of climbing. The girls met with only one really dangerous situation during that afternoon's climb. That was when they came to a place where there were steep slabs of granite with no hand-holds. Over them the girls were obliged to pass with scarcely a foothold, what there were of these being almost too far apart for them to reach. The life line here came into use for the first time. The guide crawled over the rocks, taking one end of the line with him; then the girls, one by one, crept after him, clinging to the line, every step being made with extreme caution, for a slip would have meant a drop of about thirty feet and a landing on sharp, jagged rocks. It would not have been a long fall, but the landing was another matter.
Then, at the end, there was another difficulty. Here they had to work their way around a corner. Only one could move at a time, the others holding on tightly until she had reached a place where she, in turn, could brace herself while the next one moved up; and so on until all had passed the bulging rock that had seemed to bar their passage absolutely.
"Fine!" approved the guide. "You did it like veteran climbers."
"Where ith the camp?" wailed Tommy. "I can't go another thtep. I'm finithed."
"Rest a few moments," directed the guide.
"The shower is ended," announced Miss Elting.
"Let it rain some more," declared Jane McCarthy sturdily. "We can't get any wetter and the rain will help to cool us off. It doesn't seem to be far to the camping place."
"It isn't far in a straight line. We have to take a zig-zag course, you see," said the guide.
Janus waved his hand as a signal for them to start. Once more they took up the weary climb, crawling from rock to rock, slowly getting higher and higher, but at no time in danger of a long fall. The experience of a really perilous climb lay ahead of them for another day.
Twilight was just settling over the upper reaches of the mountain when they halted for the final climb to their night's camping place. In the ravines darkness already had fallen.
"You will all wait here while I crawl around and get to the shelf. I think some of you may have to be hauled up," decided the guide. The girls gazed up a sharply sloping slab of granite, fully twenty feet long. It followed a diagonal course, the top of it being some rods from the shelf where they were to make camp. But, reaching the top, they would be able to crawl along until they made the shelf, the only level spot between themselves and the very top of Mount Chocorua.
Janus disappeared from view to the left, appearing twenty minutes later at the top of the long, smooth slab. He held a coil of rope in his hands.
"Look out below," he called, sending the coil shooting down the slab of granite. "By taking hold of the rope, and bracing the body at the proper angle, you mountain climbers ought to be able to walk right up. Who is coming first?"
"Let Mith Elting go, tho we can laugh at her," suggested Tommy teasingly. "Thhe won't care if we laugh."
"Do!" giggled Margery.
"I shall be delighted if doing so will furnish you any amusement," answered the guardian calmly; "that is, provided you send Margery next, then Grace, and so on."
Harriet promised to see that the order was followed out as suggested. Miss Elting glanced up the sloping rock, took the line firmly in her hand, then waved a good-bye to the girls. She stepped cautiously to the rock, braced first one foot then the other, and leaned back until her weight was directed in the right way. She then began walking up the rock, hand over hand, with an ease that amazed the Meadow-Brook Girls. Janus reached over and took firm hold of the guardian's arm for the last step to insure her safety.
"I haven't heard any one laugh down there, girls," called the guardian, presenting a smiling face to them. "You next, Margery. I hope you can climb up as easily."
"Why, I didn't think it would be so easy. Of course I can do it. Tommy, you watch me carefully so you'll know how to walk up. It will be your turn next."
"Yeth," observed Tommy, winking solemnly as she caught Crazy Jane's laughing eyes fixed upon her.
Margery took hold of the rope, meanwhile gazing up the slippery slope. Her courage failed her for the moment; then, as the memory of the guardian's easy ascent came to her, she nodded confidently and began the upward climb.
"Lean well back," called Harriet.
"Hold fatht, girlth," cried Tommy. "If Buthter fallth there will be an earthquake. I thouldn't be thurprithed if the whole mountain fell in."
"Keep still, you make me nervous," rebuked Margery irritably. "Isn't it hard enough to climb this skating rink without being bothered by you?"
In her irritation Margery forgot to lean back. She began to lean forward to assist herself, believing perhaps she could make more rapid headway in the latter position, at the same time finding fault with the girls for making fun of her.
"Lean back!" came the warning shout from above and below. But the warning was not heeded in time. Margery Brown's feet slipped. She threw out her hands, though not soon enough to prevent striking her nose against the hard rock with such force that it seemed to the girls that it must have been driven into her face.
"Lean back, Buthter!" shouted Tommy, this time in all seriousness.
Instead of leaning back, Buster slipped back, landing at the foot of the incline a sobbing, screaming heap. Harriet and Jane sprang forward, gathering up the unfortunate girl in their arms. Margery's face was covered with blood. The blood was still streaming from her injured nose.
"Oh, get some water," cried Hazel.
"There is none to be had here," answered Harriet. "Does your nose hurt you much, Margery?"
"Oh, ye—ye—yes," sobbed the girl. "My nose is broken. Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?"
"Wait!" Harriet tied the end of the rope to the back of Buster's belt. "We will let them pull you up. I think Mr. Grubb will know where to find water up there."
"I don't want to go up," protested Margery.
Jane was now mopping the blood from Margery's swollen face.
"Ithn't it too bad that Buthter ith tho awkward," said Tommy in a sympathetic tone. "I don't think thhe will ever reach the top of the mountain."
"Take her away! Take her away!" screamed Margery.
"Yes. Be off with you," ordered Jane. "You have about as much sympathy as these rocks."
"Is Margery seriously hurt?" called the guardian.
"Yeth. Thhe thkinned her nothe," Tommy informed her. "I gueth thhe will be all right, after thhe hath grown thome new thkin."
"Pull up, please," called Harriet. "Margery, lean forward this time and keep your hands at your sides. That is the way. Mr. Grubb will have you up there in no time. Tommy, I am ashamed of you for making fun of Margery when you knew she was suffering."
"I wathn't. I'm thorry that Buthter thuffered. I know what it ith to thuffer. Lotth of painful thingth have happened to me."
"Indeed they have, and we've all heard about them, too," said Jane sarcastically.
"See how nicely Margery is going up. That is the way we shall send you up, Jane dear," said Harriet, with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
"You will not!" retorted Crazy Jane indignantly. "I'll stay down first, and you know I will. But you're only joking and you know it."
"Hath Buthter broken her nothe?" questioned Tommy.
"I think not," replied Miss Elting. "Come, get started, Tommy. Mr. Grubb will assist you. I shall have to look after Margery's bruised face."
"I don't need any athithtanthe. I gueth I know how to get up there by mythelf. Bethideth, I don't want to thkin my nothe."
"Wait!" commanded Jane threateningly.
"No, I'm going. Look out! I'm coming. Get Buthter out of the way, pleathe."
"She doesn't know whether she is going or coming," was Margery's withering comment.
"Oh, thith ith eathy," declared Tommy. "All you have to do ith to take hold of the rope with both handth, lean back ath if you were looking at a bird flying over your head and—Thave me! oh, thave me!"
Had not Tommy quickly raised her head she might have sustained a fractured skull. Her feet left the rock and beat a positive tattoo in the air. A moment more and she had managed to entangle them in the rope and, powerless to help herself, shrieked and struggled frantically.
"Thave me, thave me! I can't move!" she screamed.
"You can use your voice, so don't worry," jeered Margery, who had forgotten her own misfortune sufficiently to laugh heartily at Tommy's predicament—in fact, they were all laughing. It was not often that anyone got the better of Tommy, and now that she had come to grief, the entire party, not excepting Miss Elting, could not resist teasing her a little.
"Thave me!" Tommy's screams had now become despairing wails.
"Just make believe you're watching a bird fly through the air," was Jane's sarcastic advice. "Lean back and take it easy."
"We will save you, Tommy. Pull her up, Mr. Grubb," urged Harriet, her sympathy overcoming her laughter.
"What, that way?" inquired Janus doubtfully.
"Yes, certainly."
Janus grinned, then began hauling in on the rope with both hands. He did it rapidly. Tommy began to move up the slope, her feet still entangled with the rope. Janus pulled stolidly, paying no attention to the torrent of expostulations that Tommy shrieked at him. Her companions were shouting, cheering and offering aggravating suggestions to the little girl, Margery Brown's voice being heard above the rest. It was the happiest moment she had known since the Meadow-Brook Girls had started out to spend their vacations in the open. Janus was grinning almost from ear to ear. Tommy lay on her back, gazing scowlingly up into the grinning face of the guide. Suddenly her expression changed. A look of cunning appeared in her eyes. Then Tommy Thompson turned the tables on her tantalizers in a way that set the party in a greater uproar. Janus Grubb, too, learned a lesson that he did not soon forget.
"Pull harder!" screamed Tommy. "I'm getting a ruthh of blood to my head. Pull fatht, Mr. Januth."
This sally was greeted with another shout from the girls. Tommy, having turned her head to one side to glance up the slope, had discovered something. That something was a little nub or projection that protruded from the rock directly in her path. Unless they changed her course she would be scraped over the projection, which the girl well knew would cause her some pain as well as tear her skirt. But it was not of this latter that she was thinking when she called to the guide to hurry. The little, lisping girl had evolved a plan; but, that they might not suspect her of any trickery, she screamed the louder.
In her quick survey of the situation above her she also discovered that the upper end of the rope was tied to a rock, so that the rope could not get away.
"Fathter, fathter!" urged Tommy.
"The little one is planning mischief," declared Jane, gazing narrowly up the slope.
"Yes, I know. Get to one side," replied Harriet laughingly.
"What is it, honey?" whispered Jane.
"Wait! You'll see some fun in a moment. You may trust Tommy to get even every time. There he comes!"
Janus, under Tommy's urging, had leaned well forward. He was grinning even more broadly than before, pulling on the line with all his might, the perspiration dripping from his forehead. All at once Tommy swung in the foot that was free and thrust it straight up the slope. The little projection caught her foot. Tommy stiffened one leg and stopped short with a jolt which shook her slender body. But she didn't care.
"Thave me!" howled the little, lisping girl.
Janus, caught off his balance, did exactly what Harriet Burrell had foreseen he would do. The guide was jerked from his feet, and, throwing out both hands before him to protect himself, went shooting down the incline headfirst.
"Grab the rope!" he shouted, as he pitched over.
In the meantime something was happening to Grace Thompson. No one having grabbed the line, she, too, shot backward head first.
Harriet, fearing that the girl's head would be crushed when she reached the bottom of the slope, sprang forward, and, bracing herself, stooped over with her hands close to the ground. It all happened in a few seconds. Jane had barely time to collect her thoughts when Tommy was caught in Harriet's net. Harriet had caught her by the shoulders and stopped the force of the slide, but in doing so she herself toppled over backward.
Jane uttered a war whoop. Her joyous shout died a sudden death when the oncoming Janus collided with her, bowling Crazy Jane over. She quickly rolled out of the way while the guide continued on over the edge, tumbling down a second incline to the surface of a flat rock about eight feet below.
Tommy got up, gazing about her in mild amazement.
"Did thomebody fall down, Harriet?" she asked.
"No, somebody fell up," jeered Jane.
"Look after Mr. Grubb," cried the guardian; "I fear he is hurt."
Janus pulled himself slowly to a sitting position, and took an inventory to make sure that he was all there and still fastened together. For the moment he was not quite clear as to what really had occurred. When he saw the blue eyes of Tommy Thompson peering over at him, he remembered.
"Oh, that ith too bad, Mr. Januth," she said with a voice full of sympathy. "You thouldn't have let go. I might have broken my prethiouth neck."
"Let go?" roared the guide. "Consarn it, I didn't let go! The rope pulled me over."
"Ithn't that too bad? Did you hurt yourself?"
"No."
Jane was sitting on the rocks, rocking her body back and forth, laughing, trying to keep her voice within reasonable limits.
"Are you all right, Tommy?" called Miss Elting anxiously.
"No, I'm all pulled to pietheth. Tho ith Januth, I'm afraid."
"Oh, girls, what am I going to do with you? Please hurry. It is getting dark, and we must reach the shelf," implored Miss Elting.
The guide scrambled to his feet and began clambering up to Miss Elting and Margery. This time Tommy was directed to sit down, as had Margery. She did so, chuckling to herself, and was quickly hauled to the top. Hazel followed, sitting. Harriet and Jane ran up with the support of the rope, and in a few moments the entire party was together.
"You must follow me in single file," directed the guide. "It's a narrow trail to the shelf, so no nonsense. Here, pass the rope along and keep a tight hold on it, every one of you."
They did as directed. None had any desire to play pranks, now that they could barely see where they were placing their feet. The guide led them safely to the shelf rock, a huge slab of granite as level as a house floor, about thirty feet long and ten feet deep. At the back towered a solid sheet of granite for a hundred feet or more, while in front the rocks dropped sheer for almost twice that distance.
The girls shivered a little as they peered over the edge of the slab. The guide unslung a bundle of sticks that he had gathered somewhere in the vicinity and threw them down.
"Unload and get ready for grub," he directed. "Here's enough wood for the supper fire; I'll get some more later on; I know where to look for it. Better keep away from the edge. There won't be any coming back, if one of you falls over there."
"Yes, girls. Keep well back. We have had quite enough excitement for one afternoon's climbing. How do you feel?" inquired Miss Elting.
"Well, Buthter hath a thore nothe," answered Tommy, speaking for her companion in distress. "I have thkinned thoulderth and theveral bruitheth. I don't know how Jane and Harriet feel."
"I feel as if I'd been run over by my own motor car," decided Jane McCarthy.
"My arms and my feet are tired," admitted Harriet. "And, now that we have discussed our miseries, let's think about supper. We shall all feel better after a good meal and a rest. Here Margery." Harriet spread a blanket, which Buster welcomed by promptly crawling over to it and lying down. "The rock is awfully hard," she complained.
"Never mind, dearie; we'll pour some water on it and soften it for you," comforted Jane McCarthy.
"Speaking of water, that reminds me: Where are we to get our water for the coffee?" questioned Harriet.
"There's a spring on the other side of these rocks. There isn't much water in it, but I reckon there will be enough for us. Never mind. Don't you get it. Don't you go puttering around where you can't see," Janus warned.
A little blaze sprang up from the pile of sticks he had heaped and fired with a match. The light from the fire soon threw the outer world into black darkness. They could not make it seem possible that there, almost within reach of their hands, was a precipice dropping down nearly two hundred feet. But the thought caused them to keep well to the rear of the shelf.
The guide gathered the cups, and, with these and the coffee pot, went to the spring, a mere trickle in the rocks, where he first filled the coffee pot, then the cups, carrying them back and placing them in a row against the wall. Harriet put the water over the fire to boil. Miss Elting sliced the bacon, while Jane prepared some rice for boiling. The latter occupied considerable time in cooking and was not particularly palatable. Janus said that in the morning they would cook enough of it to last for a day or two.
Hazel put the bacon in the frying pan. Each one, except Margery, found something to do and found joy in the doing despite their aches and pains, from which not a member of the Meadow-Brook party was free that evening. The climbing had brought into activity little used muscles, as the girls had by this time discovered.
The supper was late that evening. Janus had brought the small lantern. This he secured above their heads by thrusting a stick into a crevice and suspending the lantern from it, thus shedding a little light besides that given off by the campfire. The party sat down with their feet curled under them and thoroughly enjoyed the somewhat slender meal.
"How good everything does taste!" remarked Margery.
Jane averred that Margery's accident had done her good.
"I've been thinking about the accident to our guide," said Miss Elting. "I don't know yet how it occurred."
"I caught my foot on a nub," Tommy informed her. "That pulled Mr. Januth down on hith fathe."
"Oh! I see."
Mr. Grubb regarded Tommy suspiciously. Her face wore an innocent expression, but when Tommy winked solemnly at Harriet, Janus was enlightened.
"Well, I swum! I swum!" he repeated, "I believe you did that on purpose."
"Why, Mr. Januth!" protested Tommy.
"Do ye deny it?"
"No, Mr. Januth, I don't deny it. Athk me and I'll tell you the truth."
"All right, I ask ye. Did ye pull me down?"
"No, thir. You fell down, didn't you? But I let my foot catthh on a nub. I knew it would pull you over. You made fatheth at me tho I helped you to fall down. Oh, it wath funny!" Tommy laughed merrily.
"Grace Thompson! I am amazed!" exclaimed Miss Elting.
"Tho wath Mr. Januth. But I'm thorry, now. I won't do it again, if you won't make fatheth at me."
"Well, I swum! Shake, little pardner! You got the best of Janus Grubb that time, but his time will come."
"You've got to promithe," insisted Tommy.
"All right. I promise."
"Tho do I."
Peace had been declared, greatly to the relief of the rest of the party, who did not know to what lengths Tommy Thompson might go to pay the score she thought she had against the guide who had grinned at her on seeing her in an unpleasant predicament that afternoon.
The meal finished, Janus went away to secure fresh fuel for the fire, the girls in the meantime setting the camp to rights, which meant spreading the blankets for the night and clearing away the dishes.
"There is one advantage about this kind of living," observed Hazel; "we do not have any glassware to polish."
"Nor silver," added Margery.
Janus returned with an armful of wood. The fire was built up, flaring into the air just as Tommy uttered a scream. The scream was followed by a distant clatter.
The girls jumped. For a second they thought Grace had fallen over, but great was their relief to see her standing a few feet from the edge of the precipice trying to peer over.
"What is it, dear?" called the guardian.
"Oh, I lotht the frying pan," wailed Tommy.
"What!" shouted the girls.
"I lotht it. I did. I wath emptying it when it fell down. But never mind, Mr. Januth will go down for it."
The girls groaned.
"Now you have done it," exclaimed Jane. "Whatever are we going to do without a frying-pan?"
"I told you Mr. Januth ith going down after it," insisted Tommy.
"No, Janus is not," answered the guide. "There isn't enough of that frying-pan left to make grit for chickens. Two hundred feet and then the rocks. Well, I swum! You'll go without eating to-morrow, so far as the frying-pan is concerned."
"We ought to do something to Tommy for that," declared Harriet. "What shall it be, girls?"
"Oh, let her alone. Tommy will punish herself if you give her time," averred Margery.
Tommy nodded. "Yeth, leave it to me," she urged. "I can take care of mythelf. Buthter ith right, for once in her life. Leave it to me."
They agreed to do so. Harriet turned to Miss Elting.
"You promised to tell us the legend that belongs to this shelf of rock on which we are encamped. If not too long a story, will you relate it now?"
The girls crept to the fire, about which they sat in a circle with their feet tucked under them in true council-fire style.
"You probably have read," began Miss Elting, "that the Sokokis, a powerful Indian tribe, once held possession of these hills. Chocorua, for whom this mountain is named, was chief of a mighty tribe. The chief, in revenge for the loss of his son, who had been slain by the whites in battle, killed a white settler's wife and child. This white man swore to have the life of the powerful Chocorua. Shouldering his gun, he followed the mountain trails for many days and nights. The chief knew that an avenger was on his trail; his braves knew it. They made every effort to catch the avenging white man, but he was too clever for them. Yet not an Indian was molested. The white man wanted only Chocorua, and Chocorua knew it. The chief fled from place to place, ever pursued by the persistent avenger. Then, at last, the white man found the trail when it was hot. He followed the trail, and one day, when the morning was young, came face to face with the savage chief."
"Do you know where they met, young ladies?" interrupted Janus, who was familiar with the legend.
The girls shook their heads.
"Right here where we are sitting now."
"Grathiouth!" muttered Tommy, glancing about her apprehensively.
"They aren't here now, my dear Tommy," observed Miss Elting smilingly. "The white man pointed his gun at the Indian," she continued, "but the old chieftain never flinched. He sent back a look so full of hatred that the white man almost feared him. The chief, with upraised hands, called down the curses of the Great Spirit on the head of the white man and all his kind. Then Chocorua turned and sped swiftly to the far end of the shelf, near where we got the water for our supper, and, without an instant's hesitation, leaped far out into space."
"Oh!" exclaimed the girls shudderingly.
"The body of the chief dashed from rock to rock, finally dropping into the lake which you saw as we came up. Then a strange thing occurred. The white settlers finally conquered the Indians; then they brought in their stock and began to graze them. But after that every animal that drank from the lake died. It came to be known as the 'Lake of the Poisoned Waters.' The Indians declared this to be the revenge of the Great Spirit."
"How strange!" pondered Harriet.
"A number of scientific men, passing through this section years afterward, unraveled the mystery. They say that the lime formation of the rocks, through which the water seeps into the lake, has poisoned the water. But you cannot make an Indian believe that."
"Ith thith a fairy thtory, or a really-truly thtory?" demanded Tommy.
"It is only a legend, Tommy," was Miss Elting's smiling reply.
"It has been a most interesting story," nodded Harriet. "I love Indian folklore."
"Girls, it is time for you to turn in," reminded Miss Elting.
"I don't like such stories before going to bed," objected Margery. "I know I shall have the nightmare. Oh!"
"We will roll you over if you do," answered Jane. "There's nobody but ourselves to hear you, either, so you may yell all you please, and——"
"No!" protested Tommy. "If Buthter yellth I'll yell, too, and wake up all the retht of you."
"Then you'll be attended to then and there," Jane warned her.
"You let me alone. I will let you know when I get ready for your thervithes. You needn't go on talking about me, either. You make me nervouth, ath Buthter sayth."
Janus began his preparations for the night. These consisted principally in taking each girl's rope and securing it to his own belt, which he had taken off for the purpose of making the ropes fast to it. They watched him with keen interest.
"Just a precaution," he explained. "If any one of you moves in the night I shall know it."
"My grathiouth!" shuddered Tommy, "ithn't it exthiting?" She made a ridiculous face at the guide's broad back.
The girls tried hard not to laugh, but Margery giggled audibly, bringing a frown from the guardian. Tommy, however, declared that she would not roll up in her blanket, that she would fold it over her, so she could get up without disturbing the camp.
"Roll up when you are ready," directed the guide.
Each girl, except Tommy, lay down on her blanket, and, tucking in one edge, proceeded to roll herself up in it Indian-fashion, leaving only her head and face exposed to the air. Tommy sat up, observing them solemnly.
"You look like a lot of mummieth," she declared.
"And we feel like them, darlin'," answered Jane.
The guide now proceeded to wrap the free end of rope about each girl's waist over the blanket, except in Tommy's case. She preferred to have the rope about her waist before rolling up in her blanket, determining in her own mind to slip the loop off after the others had gone to sleep. Fortunately, however, Tommy Thompson's eyes grew heavy and she dropped to sleep ahead of her companions. The guide lay down with his blanket half folded over him without a single worry on his mind, knowing that his charges could not get far away without a pulling on the lines that would awaken him.
But when the pulling on the lines did come, Janus Grubb was not prepared for it, and the camp of the Meadow-Brook Girls was thrown into wild excitement by what followed.