"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.



CHAPTER XVI

"SUCH A LOVELY SLIDE"

"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 take that slide."

"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.



CHAPTER XVII

WHAT CAME OF SHOOTING THE CHUTE

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'm almotht wet 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.



CHAPTER XVIII

FACED BY A FRESH MYSTERY

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.



CHAPTER XIX

THE STORY THE LIGHT TOLD

"Strike a light, if you please," requested the guardian, as Janus stood holding the door of the hut open for his charges to enter.

"You'll have a light directly," returned the guide, applying a lighted match to the hanging lamp with its smoke-dimmed chimney.

"Oh, isn't it nice and cosy in here?" sighed Margery contentedly, dropping down on a bench. Unslinging her heavy pack, she let it fall to the floor.

"What about supper?" was Janus's first question.

"Yeth, that ith what I thay," approved Tommy. "Buthter would thay tho, too, only thhe is afraid I'll teathe her about eating."

"Afraid of you!" exclaimed Margery disgustedly. "Well, I guess not."

During this passage at arms Janus was making an industrious hunt for a frying-pan. He opened one of the packs that had been left behind, thrust one hand inside, then paused, a look of astonishment on his honest face, underneath the frown that wrinkled his weather-beaten forehead. For a few seconds the bewildered guide stared stupidly at the object he had taken from the pack. The girls were busy undoing their tote-packs, so they failed to heed what he was doing until his peculiar attitude finally attracted their attention.

Janus thrust his hand in again, but the result was no less discouraging.

"Well, I swum!" he grumbled. "I swum!"

"So you've said before," smiled Hazel.

"Anything wrong?" asked the guardian, glancing up from her own pack, the contents of which were spread out on the floor before her.

The guide "swum" again. Miss Elting paused in her work, turning to him.

"Mr. Januth ith troubled," observed Tommy wisely.

"What is it?" demanded the guardian.

"What is it? It's a rock, Miss."

"What do you mean?"

For answer he held out on the palm of one hand a chunk of granite, the while surveying it ruefully. Miss Elting took and examined the rock, then directed a look of inquiry at Janus.

"I don't understand," she said, with a rising inflection on the last word.

"Well, I swum! no more do I!" he exploded. "Will you look into that pack and see what you find? Maybe I can't see straight this evening. Maybe I can't."

Harriet ran to the pack he had indicated and peered into it. She uttered an exclamation, loosened the rest of the binding ropes and turned the contents out on the floor of the Shelter. Exclamations of amazement fell from the lips of the Meadow-Brook Girls. Instead of the supplies that had originally been stowed in the pack, a choice assortment of stones, chunks of granite, small hardheads and pebbles rolled out on the floor. They were speechless for the moment. Janus tugged nervously at his beard, too thoroughly astonished for speech.

"I gueth thomebody hath been throwing thtoneth at uth," observed Tommy Thompson. "I wonder who liketh uth tho much that he wanth to knock our headth off?"

"Open the other packs," directed Miss Elting calmly.

They did so, but with the same results. Each pack was filled with stones, and, in some instances, pieces of wood, parts of limbs of trees, dirt, shale and the like.

"Oh, my stars, what a mess!" cried Crazy Jane.

"Did you not say that our equipment was perfectly safe here?" demanded Miss Elting, turning sharply on the guide.

"I—I thought it was, Miss."

"Then how do you explain this?" she asked with a comprehensive wave of the hand.

"I don't explain it. I swum! I don't know what to think about it. I wish I could get my hands on the scoundrel."

Miss Elting sat down to think. "It is plain that we have been followed into the mountains. The man whom Hazel saw at the 'Slide' undoubtedly is the one who has been causing us all the trouble. He may have been hovering about us all the time, we knowing nothing about it. I am afraid we aren't very clever, girls. We have allowed our enemy to outwit us."

"I don't believe he has, Miss Elting," replied Harriet. "If so, he has been watching us from a distance. We surely should have discovered if the man had come close to our camp."

"It must have been the man that Hazel saw, and I believe he was the one who dropped the green goggles," was Harriet's emphatic declaration. "I wonder what his grievance is?"

"All our stuff gone; we'll have to go back, won't we?" mourned Margery.

"We have our luggage, but that is some distance from here," replied the guardian. "How long will it take us to get to our supplies, Mr. Grubb?"

"A day, or a day and a half, I reckon."

"Then we had better go for them to-morrow morning. We can do nothing more this evening. But—what are we to do for food?"

"We have a little. We have some coffee and a spoonful of rice. That's enough. We can live another twenty-four hours or so on that. I'll fix up something now. Maybe there's something in a cache back of the hut. I'll see." To their delight, Janus returned, not long after that, with a small sack of flour and one of corn meal. It did not take the girls long to start a fire in the small cook stove. They threw open the windows, the "Shelter" warming up very quickly.

The girls began work at once, Janus showing them how to make the kind of corn cakes that are popular with the mountain guides in the White Mountain range. All the time Harriet Burrell was thinking intently over their situation and the loss of the supplies. She was considering the perplexing problems from different viewpoints, with a view toward solving them.

"What did the thief do with our supplies?" she demanded, turning to the guide.

"Probably took them away with him. That's the way thieves usually do. Otherwise, what's the use in stealing?"

"I don't think so, sir. I do not believe this thief took the stuff because he wanted it, but rather to make you trouble."

"Maybe, maybe. It's all the same thing."

"Oh, no, sir; it isn't, not if he did not carry the stuff away with him. If he did not carry it away with him, what could he have done with it?" She regarded Mr. Grubb inquiringly.

"I swum! I don't know," declared Janus, looking deeply puzzled.

"Nor do I, but I propose to find out. Is there such a thing as a lantern here, Mr. Grubb?"

He shook his head. "Better leave off everything else till we get some food. There's the coffee pot on the steps outside, where I put it, but the cream is all gone. We'll have to drink our coffee black."

"Yeth, and thtay awake all night," averred Tommy. "But we don't care. We are used to thtaying awake all night, aren't we, Jane?"

"Yes, darlin', we are," agreed Jane brightly. "But I'm wishing I might lay violent hands on the rogue who took our belongings. Where is that Mr. Sheriff for whom you sent to come and catch our friend of the green goggles and the black whiskers, Mr. Grubb?"

"He'll be along in good time," replied the guide, stroking his own whiskers while regarding with squinting eyes the progress of the supper under the deft fingers of the Meadow-Brook Girls. "Here! Let me do that. I reckon I can be finishing the supper while you young ladies get ready. There's a barrel of rain water just back of the hut where you can wash. You look as though you needed it—no offense intended."

A merry laugh greeted the words of Janus Grubb. The girls agreed that they did need it. Their clothing was not in very good condition, either, but nothing could be done with the garments until they reached a spot where they could change them for fresh apparel. The girls ran out laughing, and a moment later were heard splashing in the rain barrel. They came in with dripping faces to get their towels, then, running out again, rubbed their faces until their cheeks glowed underneath their tan. Tommy's freckles were now more pronounced than ever, but her usually pale face wore a healthy look and her eyes were bright and sparkling.

Supper was late that evening, nor was it a heavy supper when at last they sat down on the benches in the "Shelter" with their cups and their corn cakes beside them, but they were as happy a party of girls as if sitting at a table laden with good things and sparkling with cut glass and silver. There were health and good-fellowship here; and there also was the pride of achievement, for these young girls had accomplished a great deal during the time they had been living their out-of-door life. They made merry over their scanty supper and finished with satisfied appetites.

After supper Harriet asked the guide to prepare some torches, saying she wished to look about to see if she could find anything. Janus said there was no wood at hand fit for torches. No wood, no lantern—nothing save the smoky old lamp in the "Shelter," and very little oil in that. Janus said there had been a can of oil there a week before that, but that some one must have carried it off, can and all.

"I'll hold the light for you if you want to dig," he offered.

"Yes, please do that," urged Harriet. "I know where I wish to look. If you will hold the light out there on the edge of that bank of rocks I will go below. It is such a convenient place to throw things. Tommy, look out that you don't throw your dishes over when you go out. I think I will just wash that chimney before we go any further."

"Whatever you do don't drop it!" exclaimed Miss Elting. "We cannot get along without the lamp."

"We can build up a fire outside, if necessary. I rather think that would be a better idea still. What do you say, Mr. Grubb?"

Janus consulted his whiskers, then decided that the idea was an excellent one. He said he would go out and get some fuel for the fire, and did so. While he was thus engaged, Harriet cleaned the lamp chimney, Miss Elting hung canvas over the glassless windows and the other girls washed and put away the few dishes that had been used. A fine, large fire was started on the ledge of rock that extended out from the "Shelter" to a drop-off of some twenty feet. Harriet was very much interested in the fire that night. Then, after it was well started, she walked to the edge, and, with her back to the flames, peered down.

All at once she started to run down the path to the left. She called to Jane to come with her. They had to clamber over some rough ground in order to reach a point below the hut. The light from the fire made the shadows dance down there.

"I saw something glisten down here," explained Miss Burrell. "I am certain it was a tin can. Wouldn't it be fine were we to find our canned supplies down here, Jane?"

"Then it is fine, for here's the very thing you were looking for." The Irish girl stooped, then held up a tin can. Harriet uttered a little exclamation and reached for it. "But it's empty," chuckled Jane.

"Oh, fudge! Some one has thrown it over. Other picnic parties have been up here. Besides, this is not one of our cans. But that doesn't mean we shan't find any of our own. Look hard, Jane."

"I'm looking hard, so hard that my eyes ache," replied Jane dryly. An instant later she cried out, "Will you look at that?"

Harriet was at her side in a couple of seconds from the uttering of that cry. Then she, too, raised her voice in a shout that called her companions from the hut. Miss Elting came out carrying the lamp. Janus took it from her, and, standing on the very edge in the full light of the campfire, held the lamp above his head and peered down.

"What is it?" cried the guardian.

"We have found our canned stuff and a whole lot of our equipment," answered Harriet triumphantly.

"Hooee-e-e-e!" shouted the Meadow-Brook Girls in great glee.

"Wait! I'll be down there to help you gather it up," Janus called down to them.

"Get the packs, girls," ordered Miss Elting.

Then there came an interruption that startled the girls into silence. Something sped through the air over their heads, uttering a strange, weird woo-woo-woo! It passed, followed by a distant report, the crack of a rifle. Then, all at once, the lamp that Janus Grubb was holding above his head crumbled into nothingness, the oil in the well of the lamp streaming down over the guide's head and face.



CHAPTER XX

SEEKING A DESPERATE REVENGE

"Lie down!" bellowed Janus.

"Down!" commanded Miss Elting, in the same moment.

Janus moved more quickly than they ever had seen him do before. They did not think him capable of such rapid action.

"Look out below!" he roared, as, with a series of rapid kicks, he sent the burning sticks of the campfire tumbling over the edge into the little ravine below the "Shelter."

"Get out of the light! Come up here as fast as ye can! Into the hut with ye, every one!" Janus sprang from the rock and ran down the path toward Harriet and Jane.

"What's the matter now?" demanded Jane, who did not understand.

"I don't know," answered Harriet, herself a little startled. "I heard a gun fired twice. Can it be that some one is shooting at us? Oh, I hope not. But we must get out of here! Mr. Grubb, is that you?" she called, hearing some one floundering toward them.

"It's Grubb. Get out of that."

"What has happened?" begged Harriet, hurrying to meet the guide, who came on a run to where they stood.

"Enough! Did you hear the shots?"

"Yes."

"Well, one of them snipped the lamp. I'm greased from head to foot. The scoundrel!"

"But—but perhaps they were not intended for you, Mr. Grubb," suggested Jane breathlessly.

"They were intended for me, all right. No mistake about that, young ladies. Now, I want you to get into that shack on the double quick. I haven't a rifle, but I have a revolver that's good enough to take care of anything that gets close enough. Don't make too much noise; there might be another shot."

"I think not, if we do not start any more fires. I have an idea that the shots were intended for you, Mr. Grubb, not for us. If so, the man will not shoot again in the dark, fearing to hit one of us."

"Well, I swum!" grunted the guide.

Harriet's guess seemed very plausible. He led them quickly up the path, and, reaching the top, hurried them into the cabin. Janus got his revolver, and, after loading it, slipped some extra cartridges into a pocket. "I don't want anybody to come out again to-night," he ordered. "You go to sleep, when you get ready, and I'll sit outside to watch for the rascal in case he comes prowling around later."

"Spread your blankets on the floor and sit down," directed Miss Elting. "I don't think we are quite ready for bed yet. We do not know but there may be more shots, though we aren't going to be afraid, are we, girls?"

"No, we are not, Miss Elting. Why should we be? Being afraid doesn't help us one little bit."

So the girls seated themselves on their blankets, and in low tones talked over the series of mysterious occurrences that had marred an otherwise happy journey to the mountains. They wondered what wrong their enemy might feel had been done him to make him thus vengeful. The girls did quite believe that the man of the green goggles, Miss Elting's caller, was either directly or indirectly concerned in the various mysteries, but that was as far as they could go toward a solution.

One by one the campers rolled up in their blankets and went to sleep. Janus held his position in front of the "Shelter" throughout the night, but nothing occurred to disturb the camp until nearly three o'clock in the morning. Then two quick shots, fired seemingly right over their heads, brought the Meadow-Brook Girls out of their sound sleep, uttering little exclamations of alarm. Harriet sprang out through the open door without an instant's hesitation.

"Where is he? What did you shoot at?" she questioned apprehensively, fixing searching eyes upon the guide.

Miss Elting repeated the questions a few seconds later, she having joined Harriet.

The guide stood with revolver still pointed toward the tote-trail, ready to shoot at the slightest movement. In the faint light the two women could see a shadowy something that appeared to be standing beside the trail.

"There! See him? I swum, I don't understand it," muttered the guide. "I fired in the air to scare him."

"Where is it? What do you mean?" questioned the guardian.

"Him! I looked and he wasn't there, then I looked again and there he stood, right where you see him now. Then I shot into the air twice."

Harriet Burrell burst into a merry shout. She laughed and laughed until her companions, taking fresh courage, ran out, demanding to know what was so funny. Tommy declared that she would give almost anything to be able to laugh that way at that particular moment. Neither did Miss Elting understand the meaning of this sudden merriment, but she knew that Harriet had discovered something.

Janus regarded the girl frowningly, all the time keeping one eye on the faintly outlined figure out by the tote-trail.

"Laugh, consarn it!" Mr. Grubb growled, beginning to feel that, in some way, he had made a shining mark of himself, rather than appearing in the role of a hero who had valiantly defended his party of young women.

"What is it, dear?" asked the guardian.

"Don't you know what that is?" queried Harriet.

"No. It looks to me like a man leaning against something," answered Miss Elting.

"Yes, yes," interposed the guide. "When I first shot at it it was standing straight up, then it tilted over against the rocks, and there it is. You get back. I'll go over. If he shoots, you won't be in any danger."

"Oh, nonsense!" exploded Harriet. "Put your pistol down. Don't you dare to point it toward me. I'll lay your intruder."

The girl ran forward, unheeding the warning cries of her companions. She ran straight to the object that, in the uncertain light, so closely resembled a human figure. The girls were begging Harriet to come back. Instead she boldly grasped the object with both hands, and threw it across the trail. A chorus of "Ohs!" greeted this performance. Janus lowered his weapon, his under jaw dropped. He followed Miss Elting, while the girls followed them both at a safe distance, Tommy and Margery ready to take flight at the slightest indication of danger.

"Here he is, Mr. Grubb," cried Harriet.

"Harriet, what is it?" demanded Miss Elting.

"Just a plain, rotting old tree trunk," returned the girl.

"But—but it wasn't there before," stammered the guide.

Again Harriet laughed. Her companions gazed at her admiringly. None, unless it were Jane McCarthy, would have had the courage to go out there as Harriet Burrell had done. They told her so, too, at which Harriet laughed again.

"Let me tell you something," said Harriet. "I'm not a bit braver than you are. As it happened, I knew what that was the instant I saw it. The tree trunk was not standing there when we came into camp last night. Had it been, Mr. Grubb would have seen it. The trunk had fallen across the trail. When I started to go down below to look for our supplies I stumbled over the stick, and to prevent some one else tripping over it, I threw it out of the trail. The stick ended over and stood upright against the rock where you saw it. I presume Mr. Grubb did see it tip to one side. I know, however, that the stick has been there ever since I tossed it out of the trail last night."

"Well, I swum!" muttered Janus sheepishly, "I'm so easy it's a wonder I haven't lost myself."

"No, you were doing your best to protect us," replied Miss Elting. "But I would rather you did not shoot again except in real defence. In other words, don't shoot unless some one shoots at you."

"What am I going to do?" demanded the guide rather crossly. "Sit down and allow some outlaw to rob us at every turn?"

"We know you are ready to defend us," pacified Miss Elting. "What would you advise us to do?"

"Make no further move until morning. When daylight comes we will get up the stuff that has been thrown over there, make up our packs and start for Mt. Washington," returned Janus promptly. "I'll reach a telephone before long and send word to the sheriff about what has occurred. He may be out already on the bridge matter, but he ought to know about this last affair. It will give him a clue as to where the man is."

"But the unknown wretch may follow us," protested the guardian.

"He won't. He's gone into hiding after what has happened. You won't see any more of him. You see, he knows we shall be on the lookout for him, and he won't be taking any chances on it until a day has passed—perhaps about to-morrow night—then he may come back here to see what he can find. I am banking on that, after having thought the matter over. We won't be here, but the sheriff will, if I can get hold of him."

Miss Elting agreed that the guide's plan was as good as could be devised, and promptly directed the girls to return to the hut and, if possible, sleep for the few remaining hours of the night. That morning the girls overslept. By the time they awakened, Janus had gathered together all the supplies and equipment to be found below the hut. Some of the provisions were missing. Nothing that would be likely to be recognized by the owners had been taken by the man who had thrown their stores overboard, so to speak, so they found themselves better off than they had hoped. A real breakfast was eaten that morning, after which packs were lashed and the party lost no time in starting to leave the mountain that had furnished them with so much excitement.

The journey down the trail was not a long one. After reaching the foot of the mountain they were obliged to travel nearly ten miles before reaching a village from whence they would go on by wagon until reaching the point whence they were to be conveyed to Mt. Washington.

That night found them weary and sleepy, but to stay at a hotel which boasted of all modern conveniences was a welcome change to the mountain climbers, who were both footsore and weary. It seemed but a few moments after retiring before they were called to get ready for breakfast and the long ride to the foot of the mountain, up which they were to climb. Their experience on Mt. Washington was to be both novel and exciting.



CHAPTER XXI

THE ASCENT OF MT. WASHINGTON

The supper smoke rose lazily in the still air. Below them lay a vast panorama of valley and now flattened hills. The Meadow-Brook Girls, after a day of hard climbing, were about half way to the summit of Mt. Washington. They had chosen the most difficult climbing to be found in the White Mountain Range. Janus had promised them some real mountain climbing when they reached Mt. Washington, and he had made good his word. They admitted that laughingly upon reaching the spot he had chosen for their night's camping, and willingly permitted the guide to start the fire while they rested preparatory to getting the supper.

"At least we have the satisfaction of knowing that we have left our friend of the green goggles behind," said Miss Elting, with a sigh of relief. "I hope we have seen the last of him. He certainly tried to spoil our trip."

"Sheriff's out on the trail," answered Janus. "There's trouble of some sort down there. Sheriff's office said things were popping, but wouldn't talk much because he—the fellow I got on the telephone—didn't know me. Funny not to know me, wasn't it?"

"Yeth," answered Tommy.

"What did you conclude from what was said?" asked Miss Elting.

"That they were after some one and knew who it was. I hope they get him. I hope that, when they do, they give Janus Grubb a chance to tell the fellow what he thinks of him."

"It may not be the man we think at all," suggested the guardian.

"No-o-o-o," drawled the guide reflectively.

"If not, what do you propose to do?" questioned Harriet.

"Why, keep on, of course," answered the guide, in a tone of mild surprise. "To-morrow we reach the top of Mount Washington; then we go down the other side, and so on till we get through."

"All of which isn't getting our supper," Harriet reminded him laughingly. "Jane, will you please shave some of the smoked beef? And don't spoil your appetite by nibbling, please."

"Why, darlin', I never did such a thing. It was the beef that flew right into my mouth. Now, what could poor Jane do under such circumstances, except to swallow hard?"

"Nothing but thubmit grathefully and thwallow the beef," commented Tommy.

"And I did just that," grinned Jane.

Their table was a rocky shelf elevated about ten inches above the ground and standing on a sort of standard, so that the girls were able, by sitting down beside it, to tuck their feet under the rock, which made an excellent board for the purpose. The night had not yet fallen, but shadows hung over the valleys and the distant mountains, the purple tinge creeping slowly up the side of the mountain which they were climbing, enveloping the campers before they had finished eating their supper.

The evening, on the side of the mountain in their comfortable camp, was a delightful one. They sat on their blankets beside a blazing campfire amid the great silence, broken only by the voices of the campers and the occasional cry of a night bird. Janus, after having made a thorough patrol of the ground surrounding the camp, returned to the campfire and entertained the girls by telling of the early Indian days, stories that had been handed down by generations, and that had grown and grown until they had assumed startling proportions.

All at once Harriet, in the midst of one of these remarkable tales, tilted her head back, her eyes apparently studying the stars that hung over the mountain range to the south of them. She gazed thoughtfully. After a few seconds of this, she shifted the position of her head, supporting the latter with her clasped hands. After remaining in this position for several minutes the girl got up, yawned and began walking slowly back and forth, the while listening to the guide's story.

"Harriet, are you nervous or tired?" questioned the guardian, eyeing her shrewdly.

"I believe it must be nerves," answered Harriet laughingly. She strolled off into the shadows, there to sit down on a rock within easy sound of the voices of her companions, who soon forgot that she was not among them. After making sure that she was safe in doing so, she slid slowly from the rock, and walking on all fours ran away into the bushes and out of sight. It was a most unusual thing to do. Had Crazy Jane been guilty of such an act, nothing would have been thought of it, but had Harriet Burrell's companions observed her they would have opened their eyes in amazement. Fortunately, they were too fully occupied with Janus Grubb's story.

Harriet sat down on the ground, after having moved away some two hundred yards from the camp.

"I hope they don't miss me," she thought. "I hope, too, that I haven't been seen. Now I will try to see something for myself." The girl sat perfectly still, with ears more than eyes on the alert.

Harriet had not been in her position very long before her ears caught a faint sound directly ahead of her. Still she did not move, except to raise her head a little. A bird hopped into a bush close at hand without discovering her presence. The faint noise ahead grew more pronounced, the whip of a bush as it was released by the hand that had pushed it away was heard and understood. Harriet Burrell was woodsman enough to recognize all such sounds instantly upon hearing them.

She crouched low, fearing that the intruder might approach close enough to discover her. Every faculty was on the alert. Who or what the unseen intruder might be, of course, Harriet did not know. It might be a mountaineer who, seeking camp for the night, was first doing a little investigating to satisfy himself that he would be welcome. Then, again, it might be a different sort of visitor.

Harriet's attention was distracted by a burst of laughter from the camp of the Meadow-Brook Girls. Then there followed a long-drawn "Hoo-e-e-e!" that she knew was meant for her.

"Harri—et!" It was Margery who was calling. Harriet groaned under her breath. Were her companions to persist, were they to get an idea that she had strayed from the camp, her quest would come to a sudden end, for the guide and his charges would soon be piling over the rocks, searching and shouting for her.

It was Miss Elting, however, who, quick to understand, quieted Margery Brown.

"Harriet will return presently," said the guardian. "Please go on with your story, Mr. Grubb."

Janus continued. The next moment Harriet Burrell was forgotten by her companions once more, for which forgetfulness the girl out there in the bushes was duly thankful. The movement in the bushes, which had abruptly ceased, following the call, had not been resumed. This worried her somewhat. If the person out there were in the least a woodsman, he would know that some one of the party was out of the camp and would be on his guard. This might defeat the plan she had in mind. But there was only one thing to do, that was to remain in her present hiding place, keeping prudent silence and awaiting results. This was what Harriet did.

She crouched there fully fifteen minutes after the interruption from the camp before the presence of another person was again revealed. A sound so close that Harriet barely repressed an exclamation of surprise caught her ears. The girl for a few seconds held her breath. She could hear the beating of her heart so plainly that she feared that the other person might hear it as well.

There followed another period of silence, but much more brief than the previous one. It was then that Harriet Burrell was able to distinguish the figure of a man—that is, his head and shoulders. The night was too dark to enable her to do more than decide upon what it was.

Now he began creeping cautiously toward the camp, going only a few paces at a time, then halting to listen. Harriet moved with him, though not so fast. She was stepping directly toward the camp, which lay directly ahead of her, whereas the man was following a different course with the same destination in view. When he moved, Harriet moved; when he halted, she did so. Halting a second too late would undoubtedly reveal her presence, hence the girl exercised unusual caution, making little more disturbance than a cat stalking its prey. Once she sank down noiselessly when, by a movement of the head and shoulders, she discovered that the man was turning to look behind him.

"If he gets within sight of the camp he will see that one of the party is missing, if he knows how many of us there are," reasoned the young woman shrewdly. "I must be on my guard when he discovers that, or something may happen." Harriet might have called out to warn her companions, but that was not a part of her plan as yet.

About seventy-five yards had been traversed in this manner when a sudden change came over the scene, for, between Harriet Burrell and the intruder whom she was stalking, the camp of the Meadow-Brook Girls was soon to be thrown into wild turmoil and the young woman's utmost expectations were to be more than realized.



CHAPTER XXII

A ROUT AND A CAPTURE

The intruder had halted. Harriet knew that from his position he could see the camp. From her position it was not visible. She saw the man halt, peer, then suddenly straighten up and glance about him apprehensively. Being now between her and the light shed by the campfire, the girl was able to observe his movements quite clearly.

"He suspects something," quivered Harriet. But being at a loss as to what to do next the girl dropped swiftly to the ground, rising almost the next second. She was leaning well forward, peering at the figure with all the concentration she could bring to bear. The intruder had by this time again directed his attention to the camp. There was now in the man's hands something that he seemed to be leveling over the tops of the bushes amid which he was standing.

Harriet Burrell drew her right hand cautiously above her shoulder. That hand held a stone. Suddenly the stone cut through the bushes about a foot to the right of the intruder's shoulder. He jumped, but before he could decide upon what his next move should be a second and larger stone smote him between the shoulders. Then followed a perfect rain of stones. Some hit him, others did not.

There was but one way by which the man could get away without turning back and facing this unseen peril. That way was almost straight toward the camp. He hesitated. A large stone grazed his cheek. The fellow leaped through the bushes. Something was swept from his hands by the bushes and fell to the rocks with a clatter. The girls in camp heard the sound.

"Harriet, what are you doing?" called Jane.

"Look out!" shouted Harriet. She started in pursuit of the fleeing man, sending a shower of missiles after him. Some of the stones dropped to the rocks back of the camp, rolling into the camp itself.

Then, to the amazement of the Meadow-Brook party, a man darted across a corner of the lighted space, which he cleared in half a dozen leaps and bounds, Harriet still hurling stones after him and shouting her warnings to her companions.

The girls fled from the campfire, crying out in alarm. Janus, for the instant, was overcome with surprise, but he pulled himself together sharply, running to his pack and snatching up his revolver.

"It's our man!" cried Harriet. "I made him run."

"Thave me!" wailed Tommy, throwing herself flat on her face behind a rock.

Janus had clattered down the rocks after the intruder. The guide's revolver began to speak. He was firing wildly, not being able to see the man, who either had got safely away, or else was in hiding behind one of the many rocks and projections. It did not seem as if he could have run down the mountainside at the rate he was going without falling and breaking his neck. The guide fired his revolver into every dark recess that he thought might afford a hiding place for the fugitive. Then he loaded up and emptied his revolver a second time.

By this time the camp was almost in a state of panic. Miss Elting spoke sharply to the girls, commanding them to stop their shouting and to come back.

"Mr. Grubb, if you keep on shooting you will have no ammunition left," the guardian warned him. "Besides, I would rather you wouldn't shoot any more. We don't know that this man is the one we suspect."

Janus broke his smoking revolver and ejected the exploded shells, after which he recharged the cylinder and put the weapon back in his pocket. He returned to the campfire, holding his hat in one hand, with the other hand brushing the perspiration from his forehead.

"Well, I swum!" he muttered. "I swum!"

"Harriet, we will hear your explanation. Why didn't you tell Mr. Grubb in time, so he could look after this fellow?" demanded Miss Elting. "You knew there was some one about some time before you got up and walked away, didn't you?"

"I thought I heard some one. That was the reason I strolled off by myself."

"So I supposed," commented the guardian.

"Had I said anything the person would have cried out and given the alarm. I wanted to satisfy myself that I was right, and I was."

"I should say you were!"

"Yeth, and he had black whithkerth, too," interjected Tommy.

"He wore a soft hat pulled down over his face," added Margery.

"I believe it is the same man," said the guardian reflectively.

"Get back out of the light, ladies, please," urged the guide. "We will let the fire burn, but we had better keep out of the light. The man may have a gun."

"No, he has not," spoke up Harriet.

"What was he doing out there?" questioned Miss Elting.

"Spying on the camp, then getting ready to shoot. I think he was going to shoot Mr. Grubb," was the startling declaration. Janus gripped his whiskers with all the fingers of the right hand. He gave the whiskers a tug that threatened to thin them out.

"Shoot me?" he roared.

Harriet nodded and smiled.

"But I thought you said he had no gun," objected Miss Elting.

"He hasn't now. I have his gun," answered Harriet with a twinkle in her eyes. "Yes, it is a rifle. I am glad we have it, for, from the present outlook, we shall need it." She stepped away and from a rock picked up a repeating rifle. This the intruder had dropped. Harriet had picked up the weapon and taken it to camp, laying it down to continue her stone-throwing. She had forgotten all about the gun until the excitement had subsided somewhat, and Miss Elting and the guide had begun questioning her. Janus took the rifle, turning it over in his hands, examining it with critical eyes.

"Modern gun, thirty-eight calibre, repeating," he muttered. "Well, I swum!"

"Do you recognize it?" asked the guardian.

Janus shook his head. "Of course, you will keep it for the present."

"Until the owner calls for it, Miss," replied Janus grimly, whereat there was a giggle from Margery.

"Tell us how you discovered the man. Let us have the whole story," urged Miss Elting. Harriet related briefly how she had discovered the stranger and all that followed until she had driven him into the camp, as she had hoped to be able to do, believing that Janus would be able to capture the man. Had Janus been a more active man and quicker of wit, he undoubtedly would have been able to catch the fellow; however, by the time the guide had collected himself, the intruder had disappeared.

Miss Elting was vexed at Janus's inactivity, but it would do no good to say so. Janus had done the best he could and had wasted more than a dozen bullets among the rocks of Mt. Washington. They had the stranger's gun, therefore she was reasonably certain that their enemy could do them no further harm that night. Still, it was thought best to have Mr. Grubb remain on watch for the rest of the night. Harriet offered to do this, but the guide would not listen to such a proposition, nor would Miss Elting. While they were discussing the incident he kept his eyes on Harriet almost continuously. Wonder and admiration were plainly to be seen in their expression.

Some time elapsed before the camp of the Meadow-Brook Girls settled down. They felt even more secure, knowing that Harriet had captured the intruder's rifle. It was not believed that the man possessed another, so there was little danger of further shooting that night. At the suggestion of the guide, and the further orders of their guardian, the girls rolled in their blankets and soon were asleep. They were awakened, shortly after twelve, by a shout from the guide. Then followed a volley of quick shots and a warning cry from Janus Grubb.



CHAPTER XXIII

A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE

"Quick, girls!" shouted Miss Elting.

"Thave me!" screamed Tommy Thompson.

Harriet opened her eyes in time to see Janus running rapidly from the camp, firing his revolver at every jump. After his second shout of warning he was not heard to speak again. For a moment or so they could hear him crashing through the hushes, now and then firing his revolver, probably when he caught sight of the man he was pursuing, the intruder having no doubt returned, perhaps hoping to be able to catch the camp asleep, thus giving him an opportunity to recover his rifle.

The girls unrolled themselves from their blankets as quickly as possible. Harriet started to follow Janus.

"Come back!" commanded Miss Elting.

Harriet halted abruptly. "Please let me go," she pleaded.

"By no means! How could you ask such a thing? Let Janus attend to matters of this sort. We must look after ourselves here. The man may return."

Harriet Burrell still stood where she had halted. Her head was bent slightly forward. She was listening. Not a sound could be heard now from the pursuing guide.

"Hoo-e-e-e-e!" called Harriet. But no answering call came back to her. She still kept her position until the guardian called to her. Harriet then walked slowly back to her trembling companions. Jane and Miss Elting were no more frightened than Harriet. They did not know, however, what had occurred to disturb Janus, and could only surmise. Harriet stirred the fire, throwing on more dry boughs and brush until a crackling blaze had sprung up. She was more disturbed than her expression indicated. In the meantime Miss Elting had satisfied herself that nothing had been taken from the camp, which knowledge served in a way to relieve her.

However, as the moments passed, and nothing further was heard from the guide, the others of the Meadow-Brook party began to feel a vague alarm. They could not believe that anything had happened to Janus, nor could they understand why he should remain away from the camp so long. Jane and Harriet "Hoo-e-e-ed!" until they were hoarse, but no reply followed their calls. Half an hour passed; then an hour, during which time everybody walked nervously about the camp.

"Miss Elting, something serious must have occurred to Mr. Grubb," declared Harriet.

"Oh, goodness, more mystery!" exclaimed Jane.

"Please, let Jane and myself go out to look for him. He may have been shot, he may be suffering, or——"

"No! Not a girl may leave this camp," replied the guardian firmly.

"But what if Mr. Grubb is in trouble?" protested Harriet.

"Would it better the situation were any of you girls to get into the same difficulty? No, I could not think of it. Besides, I believe Mr. Grubb will return in good time. We do not know but he may be hiding, hoping to catch the one he went out after. If so, you would be interfering with, perhaps defeating, the very plan he has in mind. No, girls; you will stay here."

There was no more to be said. Miss Elting's word was law with her charges. Harriet and Jane submitted without further protest, but this did not lessen their concern over the continued absence of the guide. Of course, there was no more sleep in the camp that night. The party sat down, always keeping out of the firelight, Harriet and Jane doing guard duty, walking about the camp some little distance back. Harriet had the rifle. The possession of this gave them a feeling of greater security than otherwise would have been the case. She kept the rifle in her hands during all the rest of the night.

Dawn found the girls pale after their long vigil following the exciting incidents of the evening. But daylight served to bring back their failing courage. Harriet put down the rifle at the first suggestion of morning light. Jane gathered fresh fuel for the fire and a roaring blaze warmed them up, for the morning on the mountain was very chill.

"Come, girls, get breakfast," directed Miss Elting. "We must eat. Afterward we shall consider what is to be done. The situation demands careful thought, then action. We cannot go far without our guide."

They knew that. Breakfast was prepared in some haste that morning. While eating they discussed their predicament, finally coming to a decision. It was decided that they should try to follow the guide's trail, spreading out so as to cover the ground thoroughly. In this formation they would continue until they either found him or failed. There seemed no other course to take. The guide's pack was distributed among the girls. It made quite a load for them, but Harriet and Jane carried more than the others, in addition to which Harriet carried the captured rifle. An examination of the magazine showed that there were ten cartridges in it, quite sufficient for any likely needs of theirs.

Before starting out Harriet raised the rifle with the muzzle pointing skyward.

"Don't be frightened, I'm going to fire a signal," she announced. Margery screamed, despite the warning, when a crash woke the echoes. After an interval of a few seconds Harriet fired two more shots in quick succession. This was a signal. All listened, but no answering shot was heard, nor any shout to indicate that the signal had been heard.

"We will move on," announced the guardian. "Keep within calling distance. Harriet will take the trail from the camp; the others will spread out on either side."

Harriet Burrell started a little in advance of the others, beginning at the point where she had seen Janus disappear. For a time it was somewhat difficult to follow the trail, because of the trampling the bushes had had on the evening before. However, after a short time the trail stretched away, clear to the eyes of an experienced woodsman. There were broken bushes here and there; that was all, though enough for one who knew how to use her eyes.

"I have found the trail," called Harriet; "it is turning to the east." This she knew was to enable the pursued to make better time in getting away. After a short distance the trail turned upward, then led to the east again. Bushes were getting more scarce. Only occasional clumps of them were to be found, making the work of following the trail much more difficult.

Two hours of climbing, with frequent periods of hunting for the trail that had lost itself, brought them to the end of their resources. The trail, at first so plainly marked, had, as a famous woodsman has said, "petered out into a squirrel track, run up a tree and disappeared into a knothole." On every side were almost barren rocks, though below and further to the east the mountain vegetation showed thick and green, dropping away into ravines here and there, the surface being more uneven than anything they had yet encountered on this particular mountain. Still further below, the mountainside appeared to be quite heavily wooded.

"I believe we should look into that," said Harriet, indicating the lower part that was covered with green. "We may find some clue to the whereabouts of our guide."

"We might get lost there," answered the guardian.

"But—we have only to go down. We can't possibly get lost if we do that. Going down will lead us to the foot of the mountain, and out into the open once more," urged Harriet. The guardian smiled.

"How silly of me not to have thought of that. I am beginning to think that my pupil knows more about outdoor life and woodcraft than I ever dreamed. If you think best, Harriet, we will look down there. In the meantime I would suggest that one of us remain in this vicinity to make a more thorough search."

Harriet offered to do this, so it was agreed that the rest of the party should head obliquely down the mountain while she worked back and forth, like a switchback railway, until she, too, had reached the objective point where the others would be waiting for her. This programme was carried out, beginning immediately. Not a trace, however, did she find of the lost trail. While awaiting her arrival the others of the party walked back and forth along the edge of the thick growth, but with no better results than had attended the search made by Harriet Burrell.

At noon they stopped for luncheon, then followed the same method as had Harriet, moving east and west, ever enlarging their field as the growth increased in area. Night found them far up on the mountainside still facing the mystery of the disappearance of the guide, whom the girls earlier had named "The Pilot of the White Mountains."

He was no longer a pilot, but in need of one.

It was not a particularly cheerful party of girls that sat down to a supper of rice, corn cakes and coffee that evening. It was arranged that Harriet should take the early part of the night watch, Jane McCarthy the last half, for they dared not leave their camp unguarded. A huge fire was built that sent a glow high above the foliage of bushes and second-growth trees, visible for a long distance. This was done with a purpose. The girls hoped that, were Janus within sight, he might see the light and be guided to them. The blaze did serve to attract the attention of others whom the girls were to see before the night was ended.

Harriet's vigil was not a lonely one to her. She always found comfort in Nature, no matter how dark or silent Dame Nature's mood might be. She drew back a short distance from camp so that her moving about might not disturb her companions, remaining quiet until they had finally gone to sleep, after which she began strolling back and forth.

She had been on guard for something more than two hours when she was startled by three shots from somewhere lower down the mountain. Harriet pointed her rifle into the air and promptly pulled the trigger twice. Two heavy reports from her rifle caused an instant commotion in the camp of the Meadow-Brook Girls. The girls untangled themselves from their blankets and sprang up very much frightened. Their nerves were on edge after all they had experienced, and these shots, fired so near at hand, had sent at least three of them to the verge of panic.

"Are we attacked?" cried Jane.

"We may be," answered Harriet. "Hurry and get yourselves together. Some one besides ourselves is in the mountains and we must be ready for whatever comes. I don't know what it is. Hurry, please! We may have to leave here very suddenly."

No time was lost in "getting themselves together," as Harriet had expressed it. Fortunately, having gone to bed with their clothing on, there was little preparation to make. This completed, at Miss Elting's direction the girls moved off in a body, secreting themselves in the shadows some distance from the light of the campfire, but within sight of it. Up to this time Harriet had made no explanation. Miss Elting, after having placed the girls to her satisfaction, eagerly demanded to know the meaning of Harriet's signals, the guardian not having heard the other shots fired farther, down the mountainside.

"I answered a signal," replied Miss Burrell.

"Oh, then it is the guide? It's Janus!" cried Miss Elting joyously.

"No, it was not Janus. The signal was fired from a rifle," answered Harriet Burrell.



CHAPTER XXIV

CONCLUSION

"There goes another shot!" exclaimed Harriet.

"Answer it, dear."

"There are only five more shells in the gun. Shall I use them all?"

"Shoot once."

Harriet did so, getting two signal shots in return.

"That means the strangers have heard and understood, does it not?" questioned the guardian.

"I think so. Now, I would suggest that we keep very quiet until we see who it is. We don't know but it may be our old enemy, who is taking this method of locating us. I have four more cartridges in the magazine. I think we should be able to hold the strangers off with those if we have to."

"Do not fire a shot unless I tell you to!" commanded Miss Elting firmly.

Harriet agreed with a nod, while the guardian stepped back to warn the other girls to be absolutely silent, no matter what might happen.

Harriet, acting upon a sudden thought ran over to the fire and scattered it with a stick so that it would not blaze up so high. Then she returned to her post. Some time had elapsed before she was startled, all at once, by the sound of a stick snapping.

The girl crept to a more favorable position, where she could obtain a better view of the camp. Then her heart fairly leaped into her throat. Standing plainly outlined in the flickering light of the campfire was a man. Harriet studied the man, then slowly slid the barrel of the rifle into position.

"Stand still! Don't move!" she cried. "I have you covered. If you move I'll shoot! Hands up!"

The man started, opened his mouth as if he were about to speak, then quickly raised his hands above his head. There was a half grin of amusement on the face of the visitor, but Harriet, as she crouched squinting over the barrel of the captured rifle, failed to notice it. The light was faint and the man's hat shaded his face.

"Who are you and what do you want here?" she demanded, a trace of excitement in her tone.

"It's all right, Miss," the man smiled, tilting back his hat and revealing an open countenance. "I'm the sheriff of the county. I've been sent to look you up. We have your guide down at the foot of the White Trail. He's been hurt. We've got another fellow in whom you'll be interested too. Janus Grubb sent us to find you."

"Is Mr. Grubb badly hurt?" queried Harriet, as all the girls came slowly out from their hiding places.

"Sprained an ankle, not much, but it will lay him up for a few days. The other man we have is Charlie Valdes, known as Big Charlie. The story of Valdes dates back to the time when Jan was a deputy sheriff. He ran down Charlie and another bad character, Henry Tracy. Both fellows were poachers, preying on the preserves of rich men in these mountains. Jan got his hands on the pair and gathered the evidence that put them in prison. Charlie's time was up first, and he came back on purpose to even the score with Jan. The instant I had a description of the fellow who bothered you in Compton I felt sure it was Big Charlie. He's the man who has been following you, and we'll prove the burning of the bridge against him, too."

"Did Mr. Grubb catch the man again this time, too?" asked Hazel.

"Jan overhauled Valdes, and in the fight that followed put a bullet in his leg," replied the sheriff. "It was in the tussle that Jan got his ankle sprained, but your guide landed his man. Sometimes Jan may seem slow, but in a rumpus he's a terror for speed, decision, and grit. We were heading up the White Trail, hoping to head you off, when we ran into Jan and Valdes."

Later, at the county seat the Meadow-Brook Girls were permitted to put their evidence against Big Charlie, whom they recognized and identified. Charlie was held for trial, and afterward sent back to prison for a much longer term than his first one.

The Meadow-Brook Girls regretted parting with Janus Grubb, whom they held in the highest esteem. But Janus was not able to guide any one for the next fortnight or longer, so he recommended a new guide, who led the Meadow-Brook Girls on a long mountain "hike" over beaten trails. Then, at last, Harriet Burrell and her friends reluctantly turned homeward.

THE END