Janus was pulled from his feet. He pitched sideways, saving himself by grasping a projection with one hand; then, in his struggles to get up, both feet became entangled in the rope litter, and there he lay kicking and shouting to the girls to go after the unfortunate Hazel.
Jane McCarthy already had got into action. Without an instant's hesitation she clambered down the rocks and made her way to the base of the mountain tree.
"She isn't here," shouted Crazy Jane. "What do you suppose has happened to her?"
"Wait! I'll be right with you," answered Harriet.
"She must be in the tree still," cried Miss Elting. "I hope she isn't hurt."
"If she were not we should hear her." Harriet was down the rocks, reaching the bottom not more than a minute behind Jane McCarthy who was just climbing the tree. It was not possible to see far up into the tree on account of the dense foliage. Harriet waited at the foot while her companion climbed it rapidly.
"I've got her," Jane called down. "She has fainted. What shall I do?"
"Get her down," urged Miss Elting.
"I can't. She is fast."
"Wait! I will be with you at once," called Harriet. "Will some one bring a rope, please?" Tommy, Margery and the guardian were scrambling down the rocks. Janus, having extricated himself from the litter, had picked it up and was on his way down to where Hazel had fallen by another path.
"Consarn the luck!" he grumbled. "Can't go a mile without something breaking loose. Never saw anything like it in all my born days. Anything wrong there?"
"Yes, seriously wrong," answered Miss Elting.
"Please send the guide up here. We can't get her out without assistance," called down Harriet.
"Janus!" The guide stepped briskly at Miss Elting's incisive command. He shinned up the tree without loss of time.
"Well, I swum!" he muttered.
Hazel's injured ankle had caught in a crotch of the tree. She was lying across one of the thick lower limbs of the tree, unconscious and with blood trickling from her face. Harriet was trying to get under her shoulders in order to lift her up somewhat and relieve the strain. Janus crawled up to Jane, who sat beside the unconscious girl.
"Well, I swum!" he exclaimed.
"Do something!" exploded Jane. "Do you want us to tell you what to do?"
"No, Miss; I know."
"Pardon me. I didn't mean to be rude. Only get Hazel out of the tree. She must have help at once. Go down and help Harriet lift her. I'll try to get her foot out of the crotch of the tree when you lift her off the limb. But be careful and don't lose your hold on her."
"If you will come here and support Hazel's shoulders I think I shall be able to do better by lifting her at the waist," suggested Harriet. "I am afraid you had better remain down there, Miss Elting," she called as the guardian made ready to climb the tree; "there isn't room for all of us. Besides, the tree might break. I don't know how strong these limbs really are. You might have one of the girls bring a blanket. There is one on top of the tree, but we can't get it."
Tommy climbed back to the trail, throwing a blanket down. In the meantime, Jane had got down and was supporting Hazel's head and shoulders. Harriet braced herself, back and feet, against the limbs of the tree, both arms about the waist of the imprisoned, unconscious girl. Janus was working cautiously at the captive foot.
"Raise her a little. Whoa! Hold her there."
It was not an easy task for the two girls to follow orders in that instance, but they did, their faces growing red under the strain. Hazel was moaning.
"Miss Elting; the smelling salts!" called Harriet.
The guardian passed them up, Jane grasping the bottle and placing it under Hazel's nostrils.
"Lift a little more. That's enough." Janus was working the ankle up a little at a time. "Can you hold her?"
"Yes. Tell us when you have freed the foot, please. You will have to steady her. Hold her feet together, if possible. That will make it easier for us. We mustn't drop her."
"One more lift and—whoa! It's free!"
Harriet knew that without his saying so. A sudden weight was thrown on her arms, nearly tipping her over. Harriet's face grew red under the strain. Glancing up, she saw that the injured foot was indeed free.
"Let go, Jane, but watch her head to see that it doesn't get bumped."
"You can't handle her alone, darlin'. Better let me help you," counseled Jane.
"Yes I can. But be ready to catch her in case anything goes wrong. Please don't try to help her down to me, Mr. Grubb, you'll surely throw me over if you do," warned Harriet. "Miss Elting, you and the girls hold a blanket to catch her if we should let her fall."
Space was so limited in the tree that everyone up there was laboring under great difficulties.
"Better let me get down there," suggested Janus.
Harriet shook her head. She was slowly righting the now half unconscious girl, every muscle trembling under the strain she was putting upon it.
"Hooray!" cried Crazy Jane.
"I swum, but she is strong," muttered Janus admiringly. "I reckon——" He did not complete what he had started to say. A warning snap told him that something was giving way.
Harriet had heard and understood. She shifted her weight to one foot, but the combined weight of the two was too much for the limb. It broke from under her with amazing suddenness.
"Catch us!" screamed Harriet.
Jane grabbed frantically for Harriet and her burden as they came crashing down. But, instead of lending assistance, Jane pulled Harriet toward her just as the latter was reaching out one hand for a limb by which to break the fall. She missed the limb of the tree by an inch or so. Jane's effort threw her off her balance also. The three girls went crashing down.
"Hold the blanket hard!" shouted Harriet. Then, with rare presence of mind, she let go of her burden. The object in doing this was that Hazel might land on the upraised blanket and thus break her fall. Harriet reasoned that she and Jane were better able to take care of themselves than was Hazel in her half unconscious condition. Hazel reached the blanket first, but her fall was of such force that the blanket was jerked from the hands of Miss Elting and her two charges. However, the blanket had served to break the fall of the unfortunate mountain climber.
The next instant the other two girls came tumbling down, but they fell feet first.
"Out of the way!" cried Jane.
Harriet threw herself to one side in order not to fall directly on Hazel, whom those below had had no time to get out of the path of the others. The result of Harriet's throwing herself sideways was that she fell heavily on her side. She lay still. Jane came straight down, reaching the rocks on all fours right over Hazel. The shock was a severe one, and, for the moment, Jane feared she had broken both wrists. Miss Elting dragged her aside, then drew Hazel from beneath the tree. This move was made just in time, for at that juncture something else occurred: Janus Grubb lost his footing and came crashing down.
Janus landed in a heap on the gray blanket. The fall stunned him briefly. But no one gave any heed to Janus. Miss Elting, Tommy and Margery were working over Hazel.
"Look after Harriet," directed the guardian sharply.
"Oh, my dear, are you hurt?" begged Margery.
"I—I don't know. My side hurts. Let me lie still a little. I—I guess I shall be all right soon."
"Well, I swum!" grunted the guide, getting unsteadily to his feet. "I swum!"
Jane was sitting on the ground, a little dazed from her fall. She stood up and leaned against the tree; then, observing that Harriet's face was pale, she staggered over and sat down heavily beside her friend.
"Oh, what a mess!" she groaned. "Are you hurt, darlin'?"
"No!" Harriet sat up determinedly, but the effort gave her pain. She winced a little, but made no sound.
"My kingdom for a motor car!" cried Jane.
"Let me help you, Harriet." Harriet attempted to rise, but had to sit down again. Jane slipped an arm about her waist and lifted the girl to her feet. "Hadn't you better not sit down, darlin'?"
"I feel better standing up. Hazel isn't much injured, is she, Miss Elting?"
"I can't find that there is anything very serious. I think she must have bumped her head in falling through the tree. She certainly has not added to the beauty of her face."
Hazel shook her head and essayed a smile.
"Did I fall gracefully?" she asked plaintively.
"Will you listen to her?" laughed Jane. "You did it as gracefully as the lady who dived from the top of a house into a tank full of water at the county fair last year."
"What I can't understand is why Tommy should have missed such an opportunity to distinguish herself," smiled the guardian.
"I thtood athide tho Januth could dithtinguith himthelf," lisped Tommy.
"Well, I swum! I did it, too, didn't I? I'm not fit to guide a plow, but I never found it out till I tried to pilot this outfit over the hills."
"Are thethe the hillth?" questioned Tommy.
"Yes, Miss."
"Then, excuthe me from the mountainth."
"I believe my tumble has cured my sprained ankle," declared Hazel. "I can't feel any pain at all there, except the smart where the skin is broken. Let me put on my boot." Miss Elting slipped it on for her, and assisted Hazel to her feet. "It is all right," cried the girl. "Isn't that strange?"
"Yeth. Thome thingth make thome folkth forget thome other thingth," observed Tommy sagely. "Have you forgotten your troubleth, Harriet?"
"I think so, Tommy. I will race you up to the trail."
"No; I can't rathe you up a hill, though I can fall down the hill fathter than you can, but I will help you up."
"I'll do all the helping," Janus informed them. "Shall I carry Miss Holland?"
Hazel declared that she could walk and she did, with some assistance from Miss Elting. The others were able to take care of themselves, though Harriet's side pained her frightfully with every step. She uttered no complaint, pluckily keeping her distress to herself, but the guardian knew by the expression on the girl's face that she was in pain.
Returning to the party a brief conference was held, at which they decided to proceed and make the "Slide" if possible before dark. There was no possibility of getting beyond that, but on the following day it would be necessary to make all haste, for the provisions would not hold out for more than another day, and even then they would have to go on short rations for the last two meals. It was a used-up party that started for the "Slide" that afternoon. Had they but known it, they were destined to be still more weary before they retired that night. The excitement of the day was not by any means ended. Dusk was upon them before they came out on more level ground and headed for the site chosen for their camp.
"I believe I am tired out," declared Harriet laughingly. She sat down, then straightened and lay at full length on the ground.
"Thank goodness for a level spot on which to lay one's weary bones!" sighed Margery, stretching herself beside Harriet. There was moss over the rocks and it felt soft and restful to their aching bodies. Hazel was not far behind the other two girls in lying down. The little company were quite ready to rest.
"Girls, you mustn't lie there without blankets under you," warned the guardian.
"We are not going to lie here, Miss Elting," replied Harriet. "We are going to get up at once and prepare supper for our hungry selves. Oh, but my feet are tired!"
"Mine weigh a ton," declared Margery.
"Yeth, I imagine they do," said Tommy with a knowing nod.
"You can go on resting if you like, Harriet. Jane, Tommy and I can get the supper."
"And Janus," added the guide. "You've done finely, young ladies. I'd like to see any young men go through a hard day as well as you have. Why, they would have been laid out along the trail from here to Sokoki Leap. We'd have had to send a couple of men with a stretcher to pick some of them up. Let me tell you something. You are trotting Janus Grubb a lively race, and he isn't ashamed to say so. Any one who says girls haven't as much pluck and endurance as boys may have an argument with Janus Grubb at any time."
"Thome girlth," corrected Tommy.
"Yes, some girls. That's what I meant—you girls in particular. It's a pity all girls don't slant in the same direction. Miss Thompson, if you will pick out some stones for the stove I will rustle the wood. No, not that way. I swum! You'll be down the Slide if I don't watch you."
"The Slide!" exclaimed the girls, turning eagerly to the guide.
"Yes. We're at it now. Where'd you think we were?"
"O, where is it?" questioned Harriet eagerly.
"Come here, I'll show you. Everybody that's able to walk come here, so you'll know where it is, then there won't be any excuse for your walking into it in the dark. There!"
All they could see was a slight depression in the rocks. It was several feet wide, very steep and so smooth that its polished surface reflected the light from the match that the guide lighted.
Harriet tossed a stone over on the smooth surface. They heard it sliding and rattling down, terminating in a faint splash.
"My goodness! Is there water down there?" exclaimed Crazy Jane.
"Yes, a pond or a pool, whatever you wish to call it. I was telling you about the Indians who used to take the Slide here. I know two young fellows who took it just to be smart. One was unhurt but the other had to be fished out of the pool. He was taken with a cramp and almost died before they got him. But this Slide isn't a circumstance to the one over on Moosilauke. That one is nigh to a thousand feet long. That ends in a lake, too. I'd like to see any fresh young gentleman takethatslide."
"Harriet could do it," declared Tommy.
"Harriet is not going to try it, my dear young friend," retorted Harriet laughingly. "She has had quite enough falls to satisfy her. Besides, she values her life, liberty and happiness."
"How long is this slide, Mr. Grubb?" asked the guardian.
"Over a hundred feet," replied the guide, measuring the distance with his eye.
"Oh, what a lovely thlide!" bubbled Tommy. "How funny it would be to thee Buthter toboggan down that thlide! Wouldn't that be funny, Mith Elting?"
"All of you keep away from here," ordered the guide. "I'll lose my reputation if what we have already experienced gets out. Nobody will want a guide who can't take care of his party better than I've done."
"You aren't to blame," replied Harriet. "It has been just Meadow-Brook luck, that is all. We always have plenty of excitement. Why, it is tripping right along ahead of us all the time, though we do not always catch sight of it until too late to stop. We will keep away from the Slide until morning. I want to see it before we leave, and so do the other girls. Maybe we might have some fun bowling stones down it. Are there any big ones that we may roll down, Mr. Grubb?"
"There's a whole mountain of them."
"Hooray!" cried Crazy Jane. "We will have a rolling bee in the morning, and Margery and Tommy shall bring the stones for us."
"Yeth. Buthter will fetch the thtoneth, too. It will be good exerthithe for her."
"Grace Thompson, if you don't stop making remarks about me I'll never speak to you again as long as I live," threatened Margery.
Tommy did not reply to this awful threat. She appeared to ponder deeply over it, then, edging up closer to her companion, gazed up into the latter's face with twinkling eyes.
"Do you mean that, really and truly?"
"Yes, I do."
Tommy shook her head.
"I'm tho thorry I teathed you, Buthter, but you know that you do need exerthithe," repeated Tommy.
"Tommy!" expostulated Margery hopelessly.
"There! You did thpeak to me! you did thpeak to me!" cried Tommy, dancing about and clapping her hands. "You didn't mean it at all. You thee, I knew you didn't really and truly mean it. Oh, I'm tho glad!" She danced about until Janus laid a heavy hand on her shoulder.
"Do you see where you're getting to? In a second more you'd have been taking the Slide on your head." Janus led her away from the dangerous spot. Miss Elting walked over to Tommy and placed a firm hand on the shoulder of the heedless little girl.
"Tommy, why will you be so careless? You distress me very much," rebuked the guardian.
"I'm thorry, Mith Elting. I'll try to be good after thith. But I didn't fall into the tree thith afternoon, nor out of it either, did I?"
"Her point is well taken," answered Harriet. "Nearly every one of us, except Tommy, distinguished herself this afternoon. How about our supper?"
"Oh-h-h-h!" chorused the girls. "We forgot all about it."
"Yeth, Mr. Januth. I'll fetch the thtoneth for the thtove. You get the wood, and we will have a nithe, warm thupper and have a nithe vithit, and then a nithe thleep and pleathant dreamth. Won't we, Buthter?"
"If you give us the opportunity," answered Margery sourly.
"Thee! Buthter thpoke to me again," chuckled the little, lisping girl. Harriet took her by the arm and led her gently back to the campsite, which was now so enshrouded in darkness that they were barely able to locate their packs.
Harriet assisted Tommy in getting stones of the proper size for their stove, after which these stones were piled and made ready for the fire that the guide was to start when he returned with the wood. Little more could be done without light. Hazel got the lantern from a pack, only to find that the globe had been broken. Very soon, however, the cook-fire was snapping and crackling, the girls sitting near it with elbows on their knees. Then came supper. It was wonderful what a difference there was in their appetites, now that they were out in the open, compared to them at home. But there was not as much to eat here as there would have been at home in Meadow-Brook. What there was seemed the best ever served to a company of hungry girls.
Supper over, it was not many minutes before the girls sought their beds. They were more tired than at any time on their journey, for this had been a day long to be remembered, the fifteenth. They would post it up in their rooms to look at every day through the winter and think of the excitement, the peril and the joys that marked that day of their vacation.
The girls rolled themselves in their blankets, Indian fashion, as before mentioned. They were beginning to enjoy this way of sleeping, wrapped up like mummies, feeling warm and comfortable in the soft blankets. No one who has not tried this method of sleeping in the open in cool weather can have the slightest idea of the blissfulness of it. Of course, if there are insects they will find one. There were insects on Chocorua and they found the Meadow-Brook Girls, creeping over their faces, getting into their hair, but failing to find their way under the tightly rolled blankets. The girls were as wholly oblivious to the insects as to the chattering squirrels that leaped from one rolled figure to another, then off up the rocks, only to return again and take up their game of "leap" over the sleeping Meadow-Brook Girls.
The day had no more than dawned when Tommy was awake, unrolling herself, but taking the precaution to see where the unrolling would land her. She had not forgotten her experience at Sokoki Leap, or the fall from the shelf into space. This ground was fairly level and there were no jumping-off places, except the Slide. She was not rolling in that direction. Freeing herself, Tommy shook Margery awake, then began calling her companions. Janus sat up, took account of the time and lay back for another nap.
"Januth ith taking hith beauty thleep," observed Tommy wisely.
Margery complained at being called so early; but when Tommy told her they were going to skip stones down the Slide, Buster was all eagerness to be up and at it. The girls did not even take the time to wash their faces, but ran to the Slide and gazed timidly down its slippery way.
"Come on. Let'th get thome thtoneth," urged Grace. She uttered a merry shout as the first round stone rolled down the Slide, bumping from side to side, finally landing with a splash in the pond, sending up a little white geyser of spray. Buster also began to take a more active interest in life. She, too, shouted as she sent a fair-sized boulder spinning down the incline.
"My, what a racket!" cried Jane. "Harriet, shall we go join the game?"
"I am getting ready as fast as I can. You had better remain quiet for a time yet, Hazel."
Hazel said she would. Miss Elting also lay gazing up at the sky, following with her eyes the flight of the birds, many of which, high in the air, were soaring toward the east to meet the coming of the day.
Harriet picked up a boulder on her way to the Slide, and, reaching there, sent it spinning with the wrist movement peculiar to bowlers. The boulder skipped some rods out into the pond far below them before it sank under the water and disappeared, leaving a white trail in its wake.
"I can do that," declared Tommy Thompson.
Janus unwound himself from his blanket and stood with his hands in pockets, observing the jolly party.
"Don't lean over too far forward when you throw," warned Harriet.
"You jutht watch me. I'm going to make thith one thkip clear acroth the pond. Here it goeth. Oh, what a lovely Thlide!"
In her excitement, Tommy leaped to the end of the slippery course, jumping up and down. In her left hand she held another round stone ready to send it after the previous throw before the latter should have reached the pond. Margery was standing at hand ready to send hers down.
"Look out!" warned Harriet, who saw the danger of Grace's position. "Get back instantly!" Both she and Jane started on a run, fearing the result of Tommy's imprudence. But they were too late.
Tommy Thompson's feet slipped from under her. With a scream she plunged head first to the Slide, starting down it on her stomach.
"Catch her!" screamed Jane.
Margery made a frantic effort to do so. Then her feet, too, went out from under her, but in making a desperate attempt to recover her balance, Margery turned completely around, landing on her back on the slippery Slide.
"Hold your breath," screamed Harriet, starting to run again, for she had halted instinctively as she saw the two girls lose their footing. Jane followed. Janus stood fairly paralyzed with amazement. It had all come about with such suddenness that he had had no time in which to collect his thoughts. When he did, he uttered a yell.
"Come back!" he roared.
But the two girls were past coming back for the time being. The third girl, Harriet Burrell, was running toward the upper end of the Slide, having made a short detour to enable her to get exactly in line with it. Now she raised herself on her tiptoes, at the same time bending over and taking a low, shooting leap, dived headfirst to the Slide, down which she shot at a dizzy rate of speed.
"Oh, she'll be killed!" Crazy Jane halted at the top, gazed down the long, slippery rock, then plumped herself down on the Slide in a sitting posture. She was on her way before she found time to change her mind. When she did change her mind it did her no good, so far as changing the situation was concerned. A procession of Meadow-Brook Girls was well started on a perilous journey, the result of which could not be foreseen by the three members of the party left in the camp.
Miss Elting had begun to unwind herself the instant her attention had been called to Grace Thompson's perilous position at the head of the chute. Hazel Holland also had rolled over to free herself of the blankets. But before either of them had succeeded in getting to her feet, Tommy had taken the long dive, followed, as the reader already knows, by Margery, and later by Harriet Burrell and Jane McCarthy.
"They'll be killed! Oh, those girls!" wailed the guardian. "Go after them, Janus."
"They are quite likely to be," observed the guide huskily. "I can go after them, but I can't stop them. There they are."
They heard the splash—in fact, several distinct splashes—faint, it is true, but sufficient to tell those in the camp that the girls had reached their destination, the pond at the foot of the Slide. Janus already was racing down the mountain, jumping, stumbling, falling now and then, but making his way down as rapidly as possible.
"Remain here, Hazel," commanded Miss Elting. Then she, too, hurried down, making even better time than did the guide, for the guardian was more agile and much lighter on her feet.
Fortunately for Tommy, she had been headed straight along the center of the Slide from the beginning. The chute sloped somewhat toward the middle. Tommy had instinctively kept her head up, arms thrust straight ahead of her. She began gasping for breath, and, either obeying Harriet's direction or the instinct of the swimmer, she closed her lips tightly and held her breath. Her little body flashed through a thick growth of bushes that hung over the chute at one point. She had seen the bushes coming at her like a projectile and instinctively lowered her head before reaching them. But she quickly raised her head again, uttering an exclamation, as the skin was neatly peeled from the bridge of her nose.
"Oh, thave me!" groaned Tommy, as the pond rose up to meet her. She caught and held her breath. When she struck the water a sheet of it rose up on each side of her just as the water does at the launching of a steamship, only there was much less displacement in Tommy's case. To her amazement she skimmed along the surface a few feet before she began to settle. Unfortunately, at about that time Tommy opened her mouth for a breath of fresh air. Instead she got a mouthful of water. She began to kick and struggle.
Down went Tommy, still struggling and kicking and striking out blindly, for the girl had not yet recovered from the shock. It was while she was down that another girlish figure shot straight into the lake. Instead of skimming the surface this second figure came down on her back with a mighty splash, turned a half-somersault, landing on her feet, where she stood treading water and screaming.
Now a third figure shot down the chute. It took the water in a clean dive, going clear under, passing close by where Margery was treading water and screaming for help. When Harriet finally did come up, shaking the water from eyes and head, she was seen to be only a few feet from Grace, who now was making a great splashing on her way to the opposite shore. Tommy could not speak as yet, but she could swim, and swim she did.
Observing that Tommy was not in immediate need of assistance, Harriet turned back toward Margery, who plainly was expending her strength without accomplishing very much. Harriet was just in time to see Jane McCarthy sit down in the pond. She made a great disturbance, added to which was a wild yell as she felt the water rising about her. Jane went into the water over her head. Margery, seized by a panic, forgot to tread water and went clear to the bottom.
Harriet, still gasping for breath from her long slide and the dive under water following, plunged ahead and dived again. She came up with the struggling, choking Buster firmly gripped in one hand. Margery was trying to grasp Harriet, and the latter was experiencing some difficulty in keeping out of her clutches. Tommy, in the meantime, had reached the other side of the pond and crawled up on the shore, where she lay complaining to herself, watching the struggle in the water with wide-open eyes. Now and then she shouted a suggestion.
"Oh, my stars!" cried Jane. Coming up, she splashed about in the pond trying to get her bearings. Then, seeing Harriet's struggle with Margery, Jane headed for them in a series of porpoise-like lunges. The last reach brought a hand in contact with one of Margery's feet. Jane gave it a mighty tug. "Put her under, put her under! That'll stop her!" shouted Jane.
"Let go, Jane," called Harriet. "She is all right now. She has her bearings now. Let us see if she has forgotten how to swim." Harriet threw Margery off. The latter splashed and floundered in the cold water, then all at once struck off for the shore. She reached it and scrambled to the bank, up which she staggered and sank whimpering to the earth.
Jane and Harriet swam shoreward. Jane was laughing almost hysterically. Though she felt chilled and exhausted, Harriet's eyes twinkled. The two struggled to the bank, there to sit down laughing.
"Are you safe?" shouted Miss Elting.
"Hoo-e-e-e!" answered the two girls.
"Are you all right, Tommy?" Harriet next called across the pond.
"Yeth, but I'malmothtwet and cold. My clothes are thoaked, and there are ithicleth hanging from my eyebrowth. Thomebody better thave me?"
"Come over here," proposed Harriet, teasingly, "and we will."
"I can't," Tommy replied, with a shake of her head. "Too many thraight, high rockth in the way."
"Swim across, darlin'," urged Jane.
"Can't do that either, the water ith too cold."
"Then you'll have to stay where you are," laughed Jane. "If you get hungry, come over and I'll give you a biscuit to take back there with you."
"Girls, I feel so relieved," cried Miss Elting, running down to join them. "But why did you do such a foolish thing?"
"We came after Tommy," replied Miss McCarthy. "If that were foolish, we apologize."
"Tommy," ordered Miss Elting, "come here!"
"I can't," complained the little one.
"We'll have to go after her," sighed Harriet, "or the little goose will stay there. Miss Elting, how would you like to take a nice, cool morning swim?"
"No, thank you," replied the guardian, with a little shiver. "Here is Janus. You see that my girls are all valiant, Mr. Grubb."
There was a note of pride in the guardian's voice.
"Well, I swum!" was the guide's greeting. "Ye did do it!"
"Yes, sir; and I shouldn't mind doing it again. Oh, it was such sport, Miss Elting. Please, may we go up and have another slide?" begged Harriet.
"Oh, goodness, yes. Please let us," urged Jane.
"By no means. I am amazed that you should ask such a thing. I forbid it. Please get Tommy, if you are going to. She will stay there as long as we will wait here. I really don't know what I am going to do with Tommy."
"I wish you would do something, Miss Elting. She surely will be the death of me. Think of me, with my weak heart, having to submit to such terribly exciting adventures," complained Margery.
"Just listen to Buster," chuckled Crazy Jane. "We must be so very careful of her."
"Well, I suppose we might as well get in if we are going to," decided Harriet. "We can't be any wetter than we are, Jane."
"But we can be colder. All right. I'm with you."
Harriet dived in to get the shock over, coming up blowing. A splash followed hers and Jane came up beside her, shaking the water from her head and ears.
"My, but it's cold, isn't it, darlin'," she gasped.
"Cold as a snowbank," answered Harriet.
"I'll race you to the other side."
"Go you! Now!"
How the water did fly as they struck out in overhand strokes, shouting and laughing, cheered on by Miss Elting and Margery, on the other side by the irrepressible Tommy, who was dancing up and down on the shore, shouting and clapping her hands in great glee! The swimmers landed, laughing merrily as they made for shore. But they did not wait to argue with Tommy. Instead they picked her up bodily and tossed her into the pond. Tommy screamed and tried to fight, but she had little opportunity for resistance before she went in with a splash.
They sprang in after her, pulling the girl down, she having got to her feet in the meantime.
"Swim! swim, or we will hold your head under!" threatened Jane.
Tommy refused to swim.
"Grab her foot. We'll tow her," commanded Harriet. Suiting the action to the word, she grasped one of Tommy's ankles, and throwing herself on her back began to swim with feet and free arm for the opposite side of the pond.
"Hooray!" cried Jane, making a couple of leaps forward, and getting a firm hold of the other ankle of the now loudly screaming Tommy. "Toot, toot! The tug is going ahead. How do you like being towed, darlin'?"
Tommy's yells indicated that she did not fancy it, especially being towed feet first. Her head went under water almost instantly. Tommy was obliged to help herself or drown. She began working her arms, trying to keep her head above water, but found it awkward swimming that way. She never had tried the feet first style of swimming. No one of the party ever had, except Harriet, who could make very good progress that way.
"Hold your breath, dear," suggested Harriet sweetly. "You will not swallow so much water that way."
"How—how long must I hold it?"
"Not more than five minutes," comforted Crazy Jane.
"Thave——" She did not complete the sentence, because a volume of water rolled into her open mouth.
They had nearly reached the middle of the pond, when Harriet stopped swimming.
"I am afraid we shall have to turn her around. Tommy will persist in opening her mouth. We mustn't drown her," said Harriet.
Jane righted their tow with a jerk.
"Those girls, those girls!" muttered Miss Elting, turning a laughing face to Janus Grubb.
"Well, I swum!" he answered, nodding. "Never saw such a bunch of girls. Are they always like they have been this time?"
"Always," chuckled the guardian. "Usually more so."
"Well, I swum!"
"Will you swim, or will you drown?" demanded Jane of Tommy.
"I'll thwim, I'll thwim," answered Tommy chokingly. "I think you are horrid to treat me tho. I'll be even with you."
Jane started for her. Tommy got into instant action, and how she did swim! Harriet and Jane were much faster swimmers than was Tommy, but they pretended to have difficulty in keeping up with her and lagged behind until their shoulders were even with the kicking feet of the little, lisping girl. Then they began grabbing at her ankles, drawing fresh shouts and protests from Tommy. They teased her all the way to the shore, up which Tommy staggered and ran to Miss Elting for protection.
"Don't make me all wet," objected the guardian, leaping back out of the way.
Tommy sat down and whimpered. Jane and Harriet picked her up, placing her on a seat made of their four hands, and started up the mountainside with their burden.
"We aren't afraid of getting wet, are we, Jane?" laughed Harriet.
"Not this morning, we are not, darlin'," chuckled Jane. But they did not carry Tommy far. She decided that she would walk, fearing they were planning some trick on her. She had no desire to be dumped off on a steep place as Hazel had been. The girls clambered up the mountainside laughing over their mishaps of the morning, and ran bounding into camp far ahead of Miss Elting and the guide. They found Hazel very much excited over something that had occurred in the camp during their absence.
There were serious expressions on the faces of the Meadow-Brook Girls when Miss Elting and the guide came in. Miss Elting saw at once that something was amiss. She demanded to know what it was.
"Hazel saw something that frightened her," answered Harriet.
"Saw something?" repeated the guardian, looking from one girl to the other.
"Tell it," urged Harriet, nodding to Hazel.
"I was watching for you and the girls when I thought I heard something behind me. I looked around but saw nothing unusual. But I had a feeling that some one was about. I walked to the other end of the camp and back. I saw no one—nothing, I hadn't thought to look up. Something made me do so just then and I saw it."
"Saw what?" demanded the guardian and the guide in chorus.
"A man."
"You did?" exclaimed Janus. "Where?"
"He was behind those green bushes that you see up there—Oh, he has gone. No need to go up there now, Mr. Grubb." Janus had begun to climb the rocks.
"Yes. Please wait and hear the rest of the story," ordered Miss Elting, who was deeply interested, but apparently undisturbed. "What sort of looking man was he, Hazel?"
"He wore a long, black beard, and—"
"You are positive of this?" interrupted Miss Elting.
"Yes. I saw him plainly. That is, I saw his head and shoulders. The rest of his body was hidden behind the bushes. I was going to cry out, but I knew you couldn't hear me. There was too much noise down there, so I just stood still."
"Did he speak to you?" asked Janus.
"No. I spoke to him. I asked him what he wanted. He did not reply. Instead, he dodged behind the bushes and ran. I could see, from the movement of the bushes to the right there, that he was getting away very rapidly."
"Did the man wear green goggles?" asked the guide.
"No, sir. He wore no glasses."
"Of course not. We've got the green goggles," broke in Jane. "But the whiskers! Our enemy wore whiskers, didn't he?"
"What do you make of this, Mr. Grubb?" questioned Miss Elting, eyeing Janus sharply.
"Can't make anything of it. Might be most anybody. A good many persons up in these parts wear whiskers." Janus stroked his own reflectively. "And then again, a good many more do not, so I don't see that his whiskers prove much. Wish I might have seen him. If you don't mind I'll go up there now and see what I can find."
Harriet said she would accompany him and assist in the search.
"You couldn't recognize in him the man we saw on the station platform at Compton the night of our arrival, could you, Hazel?" asked the guardian.
"Oh, no. I don't believe it was the same person at all."
"Then we are no wiser than before, except that it behooves us to keep our eyes open. If that man has followed us into the mountains we shall hear more of him. Do you find anything up there, Harriet?"
"We find where he has broken down some bushes, but that is all. No footprints. I might possibly pick up his trail, but over the rocks there would be slight chance of running it down."
"I couldn't permit it," was Miss Elting's decisive reply. "Come down. Jane, will you please start the fire? We will have breakfast."
"Oh, yeth, we haven't had breakfatht yet," piped Tommy.
"Nor have you dried your clothes. Every one of you except Hazel is wet to the skin."
Jane had brought some dry sticks by the time the guide and Harriet returned. Janus got more, realizing the condition of his party, and wishing to build up a fire that would dry their wet clothing. The girls had no changes of clothing with them. They would be obliged to continue to wear their wet dresses until these had dried.
A hot fire proved a welcome relief. The girls gathered about it, turning frequently in order to give their clothing an opportunity to dry. It was not long before the steam rose from their rapidly drying garments. They laughed and joked over their condition. Miss Elting was more serious. She held a low-voiced conversation with Janus while he was getting the breakfast. Janus insisted that he had not the faintest idea that he had an enemy. At least he knew of no one who would commit the acts that had been committed since the party started out from Compton on their journey through the White Mountains.
The girls' wet clothing was almost dry when they were called to breakfast. This meal was late on this particular morning, for good and sufficient reason, but the girls did not complain about this. What they did complain of was their bedraggled condition. They laid their trouble on this occasion directly at the door of Tommy Thompson. Tommy was undisturbed. She expressed her pleasure, however, that her companions had also received a wetting, and uncharitably hoped they would fall in every time she did.
During breakfast they discussed their situation, finally deciding to push on as soon after the meal as possible. The guide said they would feel dry and warm soon after starting on their way. He thought they would be better off on the move than sitting about the fire. Hazel had now fully recovered from the effects of her fall. Harriet's side still gave her pain, but she, too, felt that the best thing for her would be plenty of exercise.
That forenoon she insisted on carrying Hazel's pack, and did more real work on the trail than any other girl of the party. They were above the timber line, though there was little timber below it, the side of the mountain having been fire-swept long before that. The only green to be seen immediately about them were the blue-berry bushes and similar mountain vegetation that flourished in the crevices of the rocks.
It was early in the afternoon when they emerged on the summit of the mountain and gazed off over its gray top, that, flanked by other domes of the Sandwich range, reminded one of the past ages and the fascinating legends of the Sokokis. The summit was rough and rugged, though devoid of big boulders such as are usually to be found in similar locations.
"You are now three thousand five hundred feet in the air," announced the guide, rather proudly.
"Ith that what maketh Buthter tho uppithh thith afternoon?" questioned Tommy.
"It may be what makes you so light-headed," retorted Margery.
"There! Now, will you be good?" jeered Jane.
"Yeth. That wath a good one. Too bad you don't thay thomething bright every day. Think what a lot more fun we would have, Buthter."
An hour was spent strolling about the summit, looking off at the magnificent scenery which stretched on all sides of them.
A cup of coffee apiece was made and drunk, but fire-making material was so scarce that no attempt was made to cook a meal. About mid-afternoon the party was called to attention and directed to shoulder their packs preparatory to their long tramp down the mountain side to the Shelter, where fresh clothing and food awaited them. They left the summit with regret. Harriet said she would give a great deal to see a sunrise from there.
"Wait for Mt. Washington," answered Janus. "I shan't tell you anything about it, but, once you are there, you will be glad you decided to climb it."
Instead of climbing down over the rocks the party took what is known among mountaineers as a "tote trail," a narrow pathway generally used for packing stuff into the mountains on the backs of human beings. This "tote trail" was a winding trail full of twists and turns and surprises, now appearing to end at some high precipice, then creeping around the corner of a huge jutting rock, but ever dropping and dropping farther and farther away from the summit and nearer to the "Shelter," which was their destination on this occasion.
Twilight was upon them again before they reached the main tourist trail. It was now late in the season. Not a human being had they seen since starting out to climb Mt. Chocorua except for Hazel's discovery of the strange man whom she had caught spying on their camp at the "Slide." The memory of that face still lingered in mind, nor had the incident been forgotten by any member of the party. They wondered what the next surprise would be. They were destined to know within a very short time.
Walking was good by this time and the remaining distance to the "Shelter" was covered at a greater rate of speed. Janus swung to the right, then to the left, and behold, the little hut stood darkly before them!
"Here we are," called the guide cheerily, striding over and throwing open the door.